50 Miles, Fog, Wind, and Karate Kid

"My doctor told me that jogging could add years to my life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already." ~ Milton Berle

Monday, January 23rd 2012: Rest. I wish I ran in the morning. The clouds were unreal. Here is a view from my driveway when I left for work:


Tuesday, January 24th 2012: 20 miles @ 11:58 minutes per mile. I had the chance to run with Mel which was fun. It poured rain the entire day before so there was no way we could do a trail run. It was really foggy when we left our house which made for some cool pictures.


We did a six-mile loop together which took us past an enormous church orchard. The lighting was so perfect that I told her to keep going and I would catch up with her in a minute (or 5) after I stopped to take some photos.




I had planned to do a 20 miler so after we finished our loop I headed out for 14 more miles by myself. It was INSANELY windy. I have only dropped out of a run and called for a ride once. But I considered packing it in early this time.

When I was running into the wind, it felt like running in a swimming pool. My legs were churning but my body wasn't moving. I was getting bombarded by flying tumbleweeds. In fact, I shot a short video clip to show you! The end of the clip was when I really got pounded:


My wife is so awesome. She knew it was freezing cold and blowing like a tornado - so she even drove out to make sure I was okay. And.....she had Taco Bell waiting for me when I got home. I pretty much love her. True love is when you have Taco Bell waiting for someone who gets home with snot in their eyelashes.

Wednesday, January 25th 2012: 9 miles @ 12:06 minutes per mile. I wanted to see how my body would hold up to a longer back-to-back run. My knees were achy at first but surprisingly improved as the miles went by. I did another 4 miles on Satan's Sidewalk the treadmill in the evening.

Thursday, January 26th 2012: Quality time with the dentist. We have a love/hate relationship. I hate his drills, he loves my checkbook.

Friday, January 27th 2012: 6 miles @ 11:25 minutes per mile. By far the hardest part of this run was dragging my carcass out of bed so early in the morning. My body wanted to be in bed still, and I felt like a slug for the whole run.

Saturday, January 28th 2012: 11 miles @ 11:13 minutes per mile. I ran most of Gould’s Rim for the first time which has incredible views of Gooseberry Mesa:


As I was running I suddenly saw a shadow speeding up behind me. In a split second I thought “Oh great, I’m going to be dinner for a mountain lion.” I jerked around while simultaneously screaming like a little girl……and then a guy on a mountain bike sped past me. +1 for embarrassing moment while running.


The route had lots of fun little rollers as well as the funniest trail sign I’ve ever seen:


I barely made it back to my car before the sun went down. This provided me with the perfect lighting to channel my inner Karate Kid:


I was happy to reach my goal of running 50 miles for the week. Granted, my pace was similar to the speed of a walrus after being shot by a tranquilizer gun. But still.

35 of those miles were on the road! I haven’t run that many miles on a road during a week for at least four months. And 4 of the miles were on a dreadmill! I haven’t run that many miles on a treadmill for at least four months. It was a good week.

Next Saturday I’ll be doing a beginner trail run on part of the Jem trail including a secret side trail that has some amazing views overlooking Zion. Probably around 6 miles, probably around 9am. Email me (coryreese1@hotmail.com) if you’re interested!

This Is Inspiration

I came across some pictures from a trip we made to Hawaii a few years ago. One of the most amazing things I saw in Hawaii was at the airport as we were preparing to fly home.

I stopped in one of the airport stores to buy some candy (shocker) to get me through the long flight. When I got to the checkout counter, I noticed that the cashier was shorter than my child. And then I handed her my candy bars. Immediately I saw that she had no hands. And yet it wasn’t a setback for her at all!

She scanned the candy, took my credit card, swiped it, punched in a few numbers, then handed me my card and the candy. I was mesmerized. She was able to do her job just as quickly and efficiently as someone with two hands could do.

But the thing that stood out to me most was her smile. She was so happy! What seemed to me like a limitation was no limitation for her. She wasn't whining about her challenges or her hard lot in life. She was beaming with joy.

I left the store and walked ten minutes to our terminal. But I couldn’t get this person out of my mind. Our flight was leaving soon, but I didn’t want to forget this amazing lady. I decided to run back to the store. I told her that I was inspired by what she was doing and asked if I could take her picture. Without hesitation she said yes. It’s easy to see the happiness pouring out of her.

I hope I can be more like this lady. I want to turn my weaknesses into strengths. I want to work hard for the things I believe in. I don’t want ANYTHING to hold me back. I want to complain less and smile more.

No more excuses to hold us back from everything we can become!

Balancing Family and Running

Sometimes I have someone ask how I balance family time with my training for marathons or ultramarathons. Here are my suggestions for balancing family and running:

1) Like most of us, I'm not a professional athlete. I have a full-time job. I'm a husband and father. Those are my priorities for time. But I think it's possible, even with those considerations, to put in the time needed to train for an endurance event.

2) We all have the same number of hours in a day. When something becomes important to you, like running has become to me, you make the time.

3) One of my ultrarunning heroes is my friend Carol Manwaring. One day when I was picking her brain about ultramarathons she said something that has stuck with me: "I think almost anyone could do this if they spent less time on the couch in front of the TV." If you're struggling with finding time to exercise, look into how many hours a day/week you spend in front of the TV.

4) I do most of my training early in the morning or at night when the family is sleeping. That way my running has less impact on the family. If I didn't do races, my kids might not know I'm a runner because I'm usually back from my run by the time they wake up. I've gotten used to functioning on a little less sleep (and a little more Diet Mountain Dew).

5) If possible, get the family involved. Sometimes I'll take the kids to the track with me and we run around together. Sometimes I get the chance to run with my wife which I love (but she won't wake up as early as me).


6) If your training takes you away from family for a few hours, make it up to them. Sometimes I'll say to Mel "Would you mind if I leave for three hours to go run, and then tonight I'll watch the kids while you go out with your sisters?" I have even agreed to go to a chick flick with her after I got back from a Saturday run. Go me.

7) Marry a supportive spouse. Mel is the most supportive, encouraging wife I could ever ask for. I can't tell you how thankful I am to know that she always has my back with the running stuff. I would never be able to be as involved as I am without her support. She rules.

It can be easy to get consumed by training for a big event coming up. In the end though, I think family time has to be the priority. When it comes to family, saying that "Quality time is more important than quantity" is a cop-out. As a therapist, I can attest that quality AND quantity are important for children and a marriage. I try to follow the idea that "No success can compensate for failure in the home."

That's only my $.02 about finding that balance. I'm no expert, but this seems to have worked out for me so far.

Are there other tips you have for balancing family time and running time?

Hypothermia, Suffering, And A Rainbow

"A man must love something very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame or money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well." ~ G. K. Chesterton

Monday, January 16th 2012: 10 miles @ 12:19 per mile. I ran on some trails near Jem. Beautiful. And death-defying. (Just kidding mom. I'm a wuss. It wasn't nearly as scary as it looks.)


Tuesday, January 17th 2012: 3 miles @ 10:09 per mile. I went to a big hill then just ran up and down for three miles. When I got to the top, I had to stand there for a minute trying to coax the molten lava out of my lungs. A peculiar thing happened after two miles. The macaroni and cheese from a few hours earlier started begging to jump back out of my stomach to have a rendezvous with the sidewalk. This hill is hard. Maybe next week I'll have a Hill-Naming Contest.

Wednesday, January 18th 2012: Rest. (If you can call eating a gas station hot dog "rest".)

Thursday, January 19th 2012: 9 miles @ 11:53 per mile. I woke up obscenely early to run before work. No bueno.

Friday, January 20th 2012: Rest.

Saturday, January 21st 2012: 13 miles @ 12:24 per mile. This run was more miserable than listening to an entire Michael Bolton CD. It was raining hard in the morning and I contemplated running 20 miles on the road. Heck, I was even desperate enough to consider (gasp) the treadmill.

But in the end I decided to put on my big boy pants and go to the Diamond Ranch Academy dirt road. It became an outright downpour and I was quickly soaked. The wind was blowing like crazy. If my parents had seen me out there, they would have slapped me. The dirt around here is terrible when wet. It quickly turns into an inch of modeling clay on the bottom of your shoes.


After a few hours of running a funny thing happened. This van pulled up and drove next to me while I was running. The guy rolled down the window and said "Are you okay?" I told him I was fine. The lady next to him seemed very concerned. She asked me twice if they could give me a ride. I reassured them a few more times that I was okay before they drove away. That was nice of them. And funny. Here is what the road looked like:


I've told you before that I like to run by myself. But I had a partner join me for this run. His first name is Hypo and his last name is Thermia. And I must say, Mr. Thermia is a punk. My clothes were drenched to the core and I was shivering. Every cell of my body was miserable.

But here's the thing: that's why we train!!!! Our training is what teaches our body how to handle difficult situations. It builds us up mentally and physically. We can call on that during a race and we will be prepared. I think that's the purpose of training: teaching our body that it's okay to suffer a little.

And then something incredible happened......the rain let up! There was even a glimmer of sunlight!


Suddenly all that misery was repaid as a beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky.


The storm broke and blue skies appeared. I saw an incredible view of Gooseberry Mesa from Gould's Rim which I had never run before.


So in the end I ran 35 miles for the week. I hoped to be higher, but these were some pretty hard miles so I'm happy with how it went. I drained the hot water heater a few times this week trying to thaw out after running.

Celebrity Sighting

Here are just a few of the random events from the past week:

On Wednesday I was so crazy busy at work all day and didn't have time to stop and eat lunch. Finally at 3:30pm I had a five minute break. Barely enough time to run across the street and get a gas station hot dog. (Just the thought makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.)


Hot dogs have a special ability to corrupt the taste buds. That taste stays in your mouth for hours, despite how much Diet Mountain Dew you drink or how much gum you chew.

If Wheaties are indeed the breakfast of champions, gas station hot dogs are the lunch of champions. Research shows that eating three gas station hot dogs per week will cut your marathon time by seven minutes.

Later that night Kylee and I went on a walk and saw an amazing sunset:


I stayed outside for a little while later and the sunset got even more psychedelic:


Saturday night the whole fam went to the Dixie State College basketball game and had a blast. We got to sit behind this guy who kept us laughing all night:


We also had the honor of having Cee Lo Green officiate the basketball game! What a privilege to have someone with such television and pop music fame gracing us with his presence.


If, by some crazy fluke, this really isn't Cee Lo Green, it is at least his twin brother. Now get out there and eat your hot dogs!