18 years later

Back when I was a young boy. I was a very ambitious boy scout. I always earned all my badges and had a lot of fun earning the different ranks. When I was trying to advance from the 2nd class to a first class I had to swim 100 yards. I tried and tried. My scout master was in the water with me watching me fail. I gave it all i had. But that wasn't good enough. No one ever taught me to swim. I lost interest in scouts. Lost my book. And never advanced. Swimming was my road block. Now here I am 18 years later. Learning to swim so I can do triathlons. Today I swam 100 meters. Roughly 100 yards. It was a big day for me. Moral of the story is. Well i'm not really sure. but let's say don't give up. You can do anything you set your mind to. Today I swam 100 meters. I plan on being able to swim 2.4 miles in open water and then ride 112 miles on my bike, and then run a marathon.. And yes I will do it.

Ogden Valley 50 miler 2011 Race Report

Ok so first of all I was still pretty nervous for the 50 miler this year. Even though I ran it last year I trained way different this year. Last year I was doing 30-40 mile runs for my long runs. This year I ran three marathons and only trained for them. The last one I did was 2 weeks before the 50 miler.
Friday night was the regular sleepless night. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get more than an hour of sleep with the tossing and turning and having to wake up at 2:30. I woke up had some sour dough toast and a peanut butter honey sandwich. I finished double checking my list of things to bring which included, Antacids, Imodium A.D. oranges, hammer perpetuem drink, Vaseline, headlamp, baby wipes, reflector vest, band aids, ipod, headphones, arm sleeves, jacket, compression socks, flashing signal, phone, beanie, sunglasses, gloves, pepto tablets, handheld water bottles and my running hat.
I arrived at mountain green at about 4am. I was the very first one there. Last year I spent the night in a hotel near the start line but this year I just slept at home to save money and be able to sleep in my own bed. It was 50 miles from my house in Lehi to the start line in mountain green. Finally the race people started showing up and one by one other racers started arriving. I started getting all my gear on. The temperature was right about freezing. I had the thought to grab some socks (which I never run in) but I must have forgotten them. So that started stressing me out. Cause when I got out of my car it was soo cold. I was almost ready to start asking other runners for some socks. I went to the bathroom a few times. Checking out all the other runners. Trying to guess if they were advanced ultra runners or novice like me. Then some guy came up to me and introduced himself and said that he had found my blog in trying to find anything he could about the OV50. He said that he had enjoyed reading my blog and even asked me if Jimmy Joe would be pacing me again. It was cool knowing that something I had done and written about had influenced somebody I didn’t even know. So we made our way over to the road. Turned on our headlamps and it was time to start the journey. 3-2-1 go. 50 milers start off quite a bit slower than all the other races I run. But I quickly made my way up to the front with the leader. After about a mile or so we turned and headed up the canyon. I knew I needed to start off slow and hold back but I also wanted to stay up front with the leader. We were able to keep a pretty decent pace considering the first three miles had about a 900 foot climb. After a few miles this guy came up behind us. He was carrying no water bottles or pack or anything. He just cruised right by us. So I decided to leave the other guy and try to keep up with this guy. After a mile or so with me behind him he stopped to go pee and I was in the lead. But it was short lived. He soon came cruising right past me with ease. I guessed that he would be the winner of the race. After a while I decided to ease off the pace a little. By the time we reached the 5 miles of up hill the two guys that had taken turns leading slowly got further and further away from me. It was still dark and cold. But now was the time to head down the canyon. The next 5 miles had about a thousand foot decent which was fun. I ran around 7 minute miles down the canyon. It was hard to go much slower than that. At the bottom of the canyon I had a choice. Left or right. The course was different this year. Which I found out after the race started. So I had to make an educated decision left or right. Cause I didn’t see an arrow on which way to turn. I turned right. For the next to or 3 miles I kept looking back hoping to see someone to verify I was going the right way. But I couldn’t see anybody. I thought about yelling up ahead to see if the guys in front of me could hear me. Or even flagging down a car to see if they could tell me if there were other runners ahead. Finally at a gas station I saw an arrow and an aid station. Which consisted of 3 or 4 vehicles that stopped every few miles to take care of us. I was so happy to see them. I absolutely did not want to have to turn around an run and extra 6 miles if I was going the wrong way. They left me and said we are going to go catch those two guys ahead of you. They left me and off in the distance I could see their tail lights so I wasn’t too far away from the leaders. By this point my toes had thawed out from the cold and I was feeling pretty good. Had some consistent 8 and a half minute miles. Still pitch black outside I made my way through Huntsville on some back country roads. There was one point where I almost missed a turn, but luckily I saw it and turned right. The course did double back at that spot and met up with the original road. I was doing good until about mile 20 or so. The sun finally came up.. I started taking some gu’s and getting nutrition in me. By mile 20 this was the point where I was starting to get real tired and real nervous as to how the rest of the race was gonna be. Last year I was doing 30-40 mile long runs for most of the year. This year I had only trained for marathons with long runs no longer than 20 miles. At about mile 22 my pace slowed and I started getting real tired. Dropping down to 10 minute miles. Still taking my walk breaks about once a mile. I knew if I could just get to mile 27 that’s where I’d be meeting up with my little brother jimmy joe that would be pacing me the last 23. I had made pretty good time up to this point hitting the 26.2 around 4 hours or so. I was worried he wouldn’t be to the aid station yet but by 26 and a half he came driving up in his car. I was pretty excited to say the least. I tried to say something to him but I was pretty chocked up and couldn’t get much out. He turned around and went to the aid station to wait for me. When I got there the volunteers were so great and motivating. Treating you like royalty. They were so great. I changed my wardrobe. Taking off the running pants and the jacket, beanie and headlamp. Switched over to hat and sunglasses. Ran inside the church and went to the bathroom. Drank some beef broth soup and we were on our way. This was the first time I had to go number two. Which is a big difference from last year. Last year I was so sick most of the race probably went to the bathroom like 10 times. This year I took some immodium a.d. and antacids and it seemed to keep things under control. It was so good to have my pacer with me. It was like a fresh start. One thing was kinda weird when I got to the aid station they told me I was in 5th place. The whole time I knew I was in 3rd. they told me the first female was even ahead of me. After thinking about it I’m positive that they missed the turn in Huntsville and cut off 3 or 4 miles and passed me there. I mentioned it a few times to the people putting on the race but they just kept telling me that she was an all American. But it wasn’t worth the fight so I said whatever and kept going.
The next ten miles were still pretty hard. My hamstring was acting up making uphill’s extremely hard. This part of the course was pretty flat with slight uphills. the scenery was breathtaking. The fall leaves, the country roads, the reservoir. It is such an amazing course. I had about 4 miles where I started to get extremely chaffed. I had forgotten to put on some glide or Vaseline and it was starting to hurt bad. And affect my running. Finally one of the aid vehicles stopped and I vaselined up and was good as new. I think it was around mile 37 or so that I took another imodium and it was real weird. It got stuck in my throat and I kept drinking Gatorade and it stayed there. Finally I started gagging and I told jimmy joe to hold on. I then spewed out about 2 water bottles full of Gatorade. When that little session ended we were on our way. I did get pretty dehydrated after that. I only had a little bit of over sugared Gatorade that was only making me sicker. 3 hard miles of that and finally and aid vehicle stopped and after I got some water in me I felt great again. Well as good as could be expected. The whole time I’ve been munching on pretzels, gu chomps, sport beans gu’s. pretty much I was taking anything that had caffeine in it. At 11 am I took some more ibuprofen. April finally arrived with the kids. It was great to see them. Having tons of support helps so much in racing. It’s like you can feel the collective support from everyone you know and love from your immediate family to your friends on facebook. It helps so much knowing that there are so many that care for you and want you to succeed. We rounded the lake and it was time to start the hardest part of the race. The five miles of uphill. With about a thousand feet of climb it was sooo hard. Jimmy joe finally came up with a system of run for 30 seconds walk for 30 seconds. It helped us climb the hill much faster than just walking the whole thing. Mile 44 had 424 feet of climb. I was running on pure will at this point. Finally at the top of the hill I knew it was 5 miles of downhill and we were done. This was by far the funnest part of the race. After doing 13 and 14 minute miles uphill. The 7 minute miles we were doing downhill felt like we were flying. I hit my runners high and cruised down that hill. This was also the part where doug (my brother in law) was taking video and april was taking pictures and my dad taking video as well. So it was perfect timing. We hauled down that canyon and it was amazing. We got to the bottom and rounded the corner and we had about half a mile to the finish line. With about a quarter mile we really picked up our pace for the big finish. I crossed the finish line with my awesome little brother right behind me and my family there to greet me. I let out a yell as I crossed the finish line. And felt great. My runners high was still there. I gave my wife a hug and kiss and was so happy to be done and to have completed that journey. I crossed the finish line at 8 hours and 10 minutes. 9min 42 sec average mile. I was ecstatic with my time. 2 hours and 10 minutes faster than last years race. Officially I took 5th place overall. Which was pretty cool to. I still think I took 3rd place but whatever. I stoked about the time I got. And striders does such a great job at putting on the race and taking care of their runners. I think I’ll have to make this part of my racing schedule every year. So this completes my 2nd season of running. With 3 marathons, 3 half marathons, one 50 miler and some 5k’s. Now I’ll take it easy for a month or so then it’s time to start training for Boston in April.




Here is some clips that i took during the race.

Here is a video Doug did.

here is the video my mom put together

and here is the video my dad put together

The will to run 50 miles

Recently we watched the Green Lantern. the part that I loved in the movie was
the part about a persons will being the strongest power in the universe. Even stronger than
fear. Tomorrow i'm running a 50 mile race. This will be my second time running this distance.
I thought that this year would be easier cause I know what to expect. But I think that's the part the
makes this even harder. I know what i'm about to go through. I've trained different than i did last year.
So honestly I know what to expect in the race but I have no idea how my body will handle this
distance with the type of training I did this year.
I think most people might have the conception that people doing things like this, are able
to do so because they have no fear. truth is i'm scared to death to go out and run this distance
with 16 miles of grueling uphill. But I have to remind myself that my will is stronger than my fear.
And my will can get me through anything. If we go through our lives avoiding things that we are
afraid of, then we will never grow. We will never find out what we are made of. We will never become
the person we are meant to be.

Layton Marathon

Layton Marathon. 2nd place overall. This was a pretty nice course. It was weird to run one that wasn’t mostly downhill. This was mostly flat with lots of little uphills. I was in 2nd place for most of the race. At mile 13 when we met up with the half marathon that had just started. (which was annoying) that’s when I finally took the lead. I was in the lead for the next 10 miles or so. Finally towards the end when a few half marathoners passed me apparently a full marathon guy passed me. Which I was completely unaware of. So when I finished I was sure that I took 1st. but they informed me that another guy had come in 2 minutes before me. But hey 2nd place is still pretty cool so I was still happy with that. Overall my stomach felt pretty good which is usually my biggest challenge in races. I had a tough patch from mile 5-7 where I wasn’t feeling so good. But it passed. I felt pretty strong the whole race but definitely lost some steam the last bit of the race. After I was done I finally felt like eating ice cream sandwiches. They always have those after races. But they’ve never sounded good until today. Now just need to recover in time for my 50 miler in two weeks.

Zade's Ghost Stories

Zade tells some ghost stories. Gotta love him.

We are SO excited to have a new Daughter!!!

Lisell Mari Pedersen

She is from Norway and she is 17 years old. She likes salad, salami, Pork, Salty snacks, shopping, watching movies, and......Thats pretty much it. haha We have really enjoyed getting to know her and we are excited to have her here for the rest of the school year. We have gone a few fun places with her already. Lake Powell was probably the funnest thing we have done so far. Davey will post a video later that he made of that. ANyway... Welcome LISELL WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Deseret News 2011 Race Report

Monday July 25, 2011

Mile 26 was probably the hardest mile I’ve ever run. My legs were cramping up. I was dehydrated from throwing up. Each step was so hard.

Well let’s back up a little. On Sunday night we took our kids over to April’s sisters house. Jimmy joe and his wife slept over at our house since we had to wake up at 2 am. We got to sleep at a decent time. I probably got a solid 2 hours of sleep or so. With some tossing and turning. Most of it was the usual race day nerves. Part of it was worrying about april. She was planning on running the race after taking the last 2 months off of running due to her knee bothering her. I told her not to run it but she’s kind of stubborn like that. Anyways, I wake up. Get all my stuff together. Take a gu pack and my pinole. Then we load up.

Me, Jimmy joe, April, and Rochelle. We head up to the energy solutions arena where we hop on the bus for the long ride up to the top of east canyon. Lot’s of joking around and having fun. Every once and a while I would start a fake sentence with “when I did my 50 miler” just to see how many heads would turn. The bus driver gets a little bit lost on the way up there, but there were enough know it all’s on the bus to get us up there in good time. We pull up to the starting line with long lines at the port a potties and lots of other people just as crazy as us hanging out and having a good time. We had quite about an hour before race time so we layed down in the weeds and had a good time talking and laughing. There was a crazy smelly hippy runner with a long beard that kept trying to get in front of the port a pottie lines.

Finally with about a half hour to go before race time a say bye to the fam and start my pre race warm up. As we get closer I make my way to the front of the pack at the starting line. Most of the elite racers knew who each other were. I saw the arrogant british guy who ran the freedom run with his british shorts and british flag. What a punk. Also the smelley hippy bearded guy was the very front guy. I wondered if he might be as fast as he was emotionally unstable. Eventually it’s race time. The two hand cyclists take off one minute before us. Then 3-2-1 bang! And we’re off. It’s still real dark with the 5:30 start time. So I wore my sunglasses on top of my head. I could see the first racers for the first few miles then I didn’t see them again. I knew I needed to hold back in the first few miles and not push too hard. But I guess my inexperience kicked in and the downhill and competition was just too tempting. Mile 1- 5:39. I back off a little bit for the 2^nd and 3^rd mile but not much. 5:46 and 5:52. People are still passing me but I figure I’ll catch them later. Mile 4 rolls along and I’m still feeling pretty good. Just enjoying the downhill and taking advantage of it. The canyon feels great and looks amazing. We would pass through little pockets of real cold air that felt soo good. Around mile 5 I pass a large meadow that I saw some deer prancing threw during one of my training runs up here. 2 Girls pass me which did bother me a little bit. This whole year in all my races I have been faster than the 1^st woman. But I let them go and thought more power to them. Finally we hit the 2 mile up hill heading up little mountain. The ONLY hill I was mentally prepared for. I had done 3 or 4 training runs in this canyon so I knew exactly what to expect. I kept a fairly good pace up the hill with mile 7 at 7:24 and mile 8 at 7:14. I also passed the 2 ladies that passed me a few miles back. Which felt good but I was pushing pretty hard up the hill so I didn’t know if I’d be able to stay ahead of them.

At the top of that 2 mile climb up little mountain

At the top of the hill I walk for a bit to rest my muscles for a bit. Then it’s off down little mountain. Mile 9 was 6:14 then mile 10 was where I slowed down a bit with 6:53. Mile 11 was 6:13 but I was working pretty hard to maintain that pace on a steep downhill. Then I have 4 consistent miles of 6:22. Which is pretty close to my goal pace but this was the downhill part. I was starting to realize that once I got out of the canyon I wasn’t going to be able to keep up my pace. We got out of the canyon and ascended a little hill around mile 17 which I was prepared for as well. Mentally. Hit mile 18 with a 7:17 pace. My legs were real tired. I had read online about a pretty steep hil around mile 18 so I thought if I could just get by that I’d be good. But mile after mile there were some downhill’s mixed in with uphill’s which I was not ready for. I hit mile 19 with a 6:54 pace. A few racers have passed me since the canyon in fact the 1^st female runner had been ahead of me for about 5 miles. At mile 19 I took my gu w/ caffeine and kept pushing on. It was real hard to get down. Anything during a race besides liquid is hard to swollow. Around mile 21 I choked on my own spit and started throwing up. I had Gatorade coming out my mouth and nose. I’m sure it was quite the site for the cars and spectators. After I finished that little episode I yelled out “I’m Ok” to the people watching me and started moving again. That mile was 8:33. After that I felt a little better. Mile 22 was 6:45. The whole race my mind wanders off to wondering how april is doing. Is she laying on the side of the road. Is she crying. I have to stay focused on my race then find a phone and call her when I’m done. Miles 22-25 were real hard. Just trying to move forward. My legs are completely shot. Walking a once or twice each mile. With 8:05, 7:27, 7:22 for miles 23-25. I was able to pass the 1^st woman in this section who was struggling real bad leaning over on her legs. I wanted to give her some motivation as I passed her but I didn’t have any to give. Finally in the last mile we get to run on the parade route. I was expecting this to be the funnest part of the race. I pictured all the people cheering us on and giving me energy the way they did a few years back when I skated the 5k in a spiderman outfit. Well it wasn’t anything like that. Everybody was just waking up. One teenage boy had a star balloon and kind of sarcastically said you’re a star. Zero energy from the crowd. Then with about a half mile left my thighs and my calves start cramping up. Which is something I’ve heard about but was something I’ve never experienced. At this point each step is so hard and that mile took sooo long. But I just kept moving. Thoughts kept going through my head like this is so hard. I don’t know why anybody does this. I reach liberty park and make my last turn. I felt completely different from my sl marathon finish. There was no sprinting. Barely able to move forward at a jog. I fought the canyon and the canyon won. I see my family and get a little emotional. As hard as the race was that’s still the best part. Seeing all your loved ones smiling and cheering you on. Regardless of how you performed. I end up finishing the race in 2:58:53.

About 10 seconds slower than my sl marathon time. But I was happy to find out that I finished 11^th overall and beat the top woman. I didn’t get the time I was shooting for but it was an extremely hard course. In the finisher section I ate some oranges drank some water and sat down by a little swimming pool they had full of ice water. I kept dunking my head in it and it felt so good. My dad and brother were over talking to me and I wanted to get up to go see If jimmy joe was close. But the first time I got up my legs seized up and I wasn’t able to stand. I waited another 10 minutes and finally with some help I was able to get up and walk over to the massage table to get rolled by some foam rollers
this is how I really felt
this is me acting not tired

I found a phone and called april on her cell phone and she was at mile 17 or something and was tearing up and in a lot of pain. Which made me start tearing up. I was so worried about that stubborn crazy woman. My legs were still pretty cramped but I made my way over and ran my little brother in the last mile.

Barely able to stand.

Me and some of the 10kers

Then Rochelle came in around 4:50 and then I started walking to find april. I made it back about a half mile and found her. I was so happy to see her. She had found a running buddy who she said was heaven sent. They both had the vibram 5 fingers on and was their first marathon. I jogged in with them to the finish line.

After it was over I found her in the finishing gates and she almost collapsed in my arms and cried and said I’m never doing this again. She sat down and revealed her huge blood blisters. I couldn’t believe how bad they looked. The guy sitting next to me just kept saying how tough she was and that I shouldn’t mess with her (which I don’t’) I was so proud of her. What an accomplishment. She has never run in her entire life and here she was at the end of her first marathon. What an inspiration. Anything is possible if you just set your mind to it.

The whole day was an amazing experience. It was so neat to see our family out there running again. My dad( who hasn’t run a race in over 20 years) and my mom and older brother and little sister were all out there to run the 10k. The experience of running races is something you only understand if you do it.

Oh and just a sidenote, that crazy bearded hippy runner that started at the very front. He finished just under the 6 hour mark.