“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” - Steve Prefontaine

When my mom told me I had lost my mind and was going to ruin by body by signing up for a 50k, this quote came to mind. I registered for my first Ultra Marathon the other day. An Ultra is considered anything farther than a marathon in distance. I'm absolutely in awe of Dean Karnazes who is an amazing Ultra runner. I just started another one of his books, and it's amazing. He recently ran across the United States, averaging 45-50 miles a day. Un-fricken-real. Did I mention he is the leanest machine around with only 5% body fat?! He's seriously not human.

These are his super amazing calves.... I am a calves girl. 

Anyway, the race I registered for is called Surf the Murph. One of my roomates from Sophomore year of college did it a few years ago and told me about it awhile ago. A 50k is 31 miles, however this race is 2 loops of 16.8 miles... so a total of 33.6 miles. It's located in a park Savage called Murphy Hanrehan Park Reserve. It's a 2,400 acre regional park. We used to go to this park all the time in elementary school for field trips. 

As most Ultras are, this is a trail race. I've never run trails before, but I am so excited to start. I'm not going to switch completely to trail running, but hope for at least 1 if not 2 of my runs a week to venture out in the trails around here. Fall is going to be the perfect time to train for this! I am running the Chicago Marathon on Oct 8th, and this race is Oct 29th, so it will work perfectly as I can use Chicago as my last long training run in preparation. 

I want more. I don't want to act like I'm a big shot who has run ONE marathon so I can do anything, but I want more. I want to push my body to its limits. I want to see just how far my body and mind can go. I am in the best shape of my life and there's no reason I can't do it.  It's a little scary, unknown territory again like Grandma's was, but I was confident then, did great, and I am confident again. Fingers crossed for an injury free training. 

I may be crazy. Who in their right mind pays $50 to run over 33 miles? Me Me Me! 

My hero.

There are very few people I know that have knowledge of my background other than I "got healthy and lost weight." I usually never eat before my runs in the morning, but I had some watermelon and hit the road. About a mile in I started barfing watermelon. You know, that taste in the back of your throat sets in and you know you're gonna hurl. That was me. I barfed, and kept on running. I got to thinking about how most people would consider that absolutely crazy and turn back for home. I wasn't going to let a little barf stop me..... and here's why....


I'm the youngest of 4 kids. I have 2 older brothers and 1 older sister. My siblings were 14, 12, and 7 when I was born, so I'm very much the baby. I don't remember much about growing up with my 2 brothers because they pretty much left the house for college as soon as I was old enough to have a memory. 


My brother Darren was a machine in high school. All-American in Swimming, Baseball, and Football. He was like some freak of nature in his athletic ability. He got accepted to the West Point Military Academy in New York. In case you don't know anything about West Point, it's a pretty prestigious place to go to college, and you HAVE to be nominated by a state senator to even go, which Darren was. 


I was 6 when Darren left home for college. I have one memory of it - we had just gotten done playing catch in our yard (Something we ALWAYS did together) and he told me he was going to be going away to school for awhile and we wouldn't see each other much. This was right before my parents got divorced - rough year. 


He went to West Point and graduated and went on to achieve countless honors in the Army. He was a 2nd Luitenant, served in Bosnia and Panama, was Special Forces, 101st Airborne, an absolute animal. Nothing could stop him. I remember him coming home from Special Forces training and telling us about it. They basically dropped him off in the middle of the woods in Alabama or somewhere to fend for himself for 3 months. He ate tree bark, bugs, dirt, anything he could to stay alive. 


He came home on leave when I was 14 and went to visit our other brother up north. While up there, he got jumped outside of a bar by a couple members of the Latin King gang in Minneapolis. They stabbed him 7 freaking times in his back and neck. He got away, crawled across a highway, knocked on someones door, and basically bled out on their front porch. He was helicoptered to the hospital, where he had a stroke from the one stab wound in his neck. 


He was told he'd never walk again, never talk again, nothing. His wife divorced him. He was in a coma. I remember going to the hospital and seeing him in a coma. This GIANT, muscular, lifeless body just laying there almost too big for the hospital bed, with tubes and wires coming out of everywhere. 


The stroke paralyzed the right side of his body, and the left side of his brain which is the communication part. He wasn't able to speak - there were no words. When he finally did wake up, it was just bizarre. You could tell the old Darren was in there somewhere, but not sure where. He was in a wheelchair and there was no doubt in any of the doctors minds that that is where he would be the rest of his life. 

This is a picture of Darren and I this past March in New Mexico, right after he completed a full marathon in the Desert with a 50 pounds rucksack on his back, and not to mention an entire paralyzed right side. It's called the Baatan Memorial Death March. I went along with him on the trip to be his ears and mouth and help get there in one piece. (I did the 15 mile honorary march)


This isn't the first race or challenge like this he's completed. He's done several 24 hour walks, triathlons, etc. This is a great article that was in the Star Tribune back in 2007 about him and a 24 hour walk he did to raise money for the Courage Center -----> here


Darren has completely defied everything the doctors and experts and people he knew thought and expected out of him. He doesn't take no for an answer, and he won't back down for anything. He has literally gone through hell and back. I want people to realize that I may be "crazy" and a little over the edge sometimes when it comes to training and my lifestyle, but this is what I always have in the back of my mind. I have absolutely NO excuses why I can't get out there and pound out a 15 miler any day of the week. I have 4 fulling working limbs, a fully functioning mind, and nothing holding me back. Darren is working with only half of what the rest of us are, and he accomplishes more than you could ever imagine. 

So I guess this is me explaining why after barfing watermelon I still continue running. When you have a big brother like him to look up to and knowing everything he's gone through and struggled with, it makes everything seem not so bad. I'm so lucky to have a big brother like him, and want to make him proud. As Darren would say, "pain... I like it."