Story In The Spectrum Newspaper

This story ran in The Spectrum newspaper on Saturday. I appreciate reporter Patrice St. Germain bringing more attention to running. Here is her story:

Group finds fun, support in club

HURRICANE - When Cory Reese set a goal to run in the St. George Marathon, one of the things he decided to do was join a runner's group.

Reese, Hurricane, said he may have been able to train on his own, but it would have been a lot more difficult.

Since December, he has been training with the Hurricane Runners' Club and said the people behind the formation of the group, Tom and Elizabeth Dansie, are excellent coaches and motivators.

"They (the Dansies) have been running for so long, and they have helped me out and provided support," Reese said.

Elizabeth Dansie said the group started last winter with an affiliation with Classic Sports and Over the Edge for runners and triathletes, but the group is a little less formal than originally planned.

"Anybody is welcome," Tom Dansie said. "We have workouts two to four times a week."
Reese is right about the experience that the young couple with three children have. Tom has been running since he was young and more formally since high school. He has run the St. George Marathon a few times and, most recently, the Boston Marathon.

Elizabeth has also been running since high school and ran in the Boston Marathon, coming in with a time 10 minutes over her St. George Marathon run.

She's also a triathlete and hopes to compete in an Ironman competition once her children, Porter, 6, Eliza, 5 and James 18 months, are all in school.

Knowing that workouts are important and having support is helpful. Elizabeth keeps up with the group's blog and posts workouts weekly.

Even though he's been working out since December, Reese said he has to work to make his body get up early or go out late at night to run. Tom and Elizabeth also said it's still a struggle to get out for workouts but both admit that if they miss a workout, they know it. "It's a stress reliever," Tom said.

Tom said he knows when he has missed a workout and, laughing, Elizabeth said she knows when her husband has missed one as well.

Elizabeth said she is obsessed with working out, and Reese said likes the challenge and feeling of accomplishment.

While Elizabeth said she dreads the long runs up to two weeks before the event, she loves the track workouts; Reese said he likes the longer runs.

"My moment of glory was keeping up with Liz for one lap," Reese said. "She (Liz) makes it look easy, but I saw my life flash before my eyes."

Tom and Elizabeth said the group isn't just for experienced runners, and the key is working together and gaining experience from others in the group.

In the couple's neighborhood, where Reese also lives, quite a few people run. "It's like this neighborhood HOA rules say you have to run," Reese said with a laugh. "But it's great to have so many."

The Dansies' love of running has already rubbed off on their son Porter, who plans on running in the kid run at the Washington County Fair and wants to beat his time from last year. The group also will have a 5K run on July 24 in Hurricane, which is how many people get interested in running - by participating in fun runs.

"Once you do the first race, you're hooked," Tom Dansie said.

100 Mile Month

I realized a few weeks ago that my running schedule for May put me about 16 miles short of running 100 miles for the month. I decided to add some extra days and extra miles to reach that number.

With the conclusion of my 15 miler today I reached the 100 Miles In A Month goal. Aw yea! Sweet! Boo yah! Rad! And any other exclamations from decades gone by.

Speaking of exclamations from decades gone by.....um.....whoa.

18 Weeks to Marathon

Monday, May 25th 2009: 4 mile hike + 8 miles in 1 hour 28 minutes. Matt and I hiked to a place called Elephant Arch and saw this cool lizard:

In the evening after gorging at a family barbecue I headed out for 8 miles. It was pretty warm outside and the run wasn't what some might call "enjoyable".

Tuesday, May 26th 2009: 5 miles in 57 minutes. I woke up early and intentionally went very slow because I didn't want to risk hurting myself after just running 8 miles the night before. I didn't take my mp3 player and just thought about each of my family members, and some of the things that I could improve on to be a better husband and dad.

Wednesday, May 27th 2009: 2 miles with Kylee. My four year old Kylee likes to run. She's fast and has what seems like a lot of endurance for a 4 year old. We walked about half the time but had a lot of fun together.

Thursday, May 28th 2009: 4 miles in 36 minutes at track. I met the running group gang at the high school but didn't work on speed because I was sore from a few days before.

Friday, May 29th 2009: Rest. Watched the Lakers move on to the NBA finals. Grrr.

Saturday, May 30th 2009: 15 miles in 2 hours 47 minutes. Mel and I headed out at 5:00am. She is registered for the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon in July and has been really diligent about training. I really admire the effort she has put in, and it's fun to go with her on runs when we're able.

We ran the first 5 miles together and took it easy, running about a 12:30 pace. We separated at that point and I was feeling good. My route included about 3 miles on a really rough dirt road with hills and my feet did not appreciate the pounding.

Last night I set a Snickers bar at the half-way point, partly to give me something to look forward to, and partly to give some extra fuel for the last half of the run. When I got there, my water bottle was there BUT THE SNICKERS WAS GONE!!!! Oh, I was mad. I wanted to make key chains of whatever rabbit jacked my candy bar.

Later in the run I met two enormous white dogs and an enormous black dog who thought it was funny to taunt me. I wasn't in the mood to be bit my those annoying creatures. It's a good thing I didn't have Uncle Mace with me.

I went slow enough during the run that by mile 14 I was still feeling okay. Of course I was sore and tired and hurting, but it wasn't excruciating. I went fast the last mile and finished strong. While I'm not going to beat any speed records, the slower pace seems to work much better for my body on the longer runs. And I had no bite marks as souvenirs from the run.

FREE MUSIC CONTEST!!!!!!

In a totally unrelated matter to running, click here for a free music contest that will last 1 week:

19 Weeks to Marathon

Monday, May 18th 2009: 5 miles in 49 minutes. I ran in the morning before work which is becoming the only option because it has been ghastly hot. I still feel groggy that early and my body frequently reminds me that I should be in bed.


Tuesday, May 19th 2009: 30 minutes on exercise bike. This is mindless exercise as long as there is a basketball game on.

Wednesday, May 20th 2009: 4 miles in 35 minutes. I ran later in the day which was utterly miserable. I also tried to run too fast for my britches which encouraged a strong nausea sensation.

Thursday, May 21st 2009: 3 miles at track + 17 mile bike ride. I went on a bike ride with Tom Thursday night. It was long and challenging and exhausting. But....I didn't feel sore and beat up like I do after running. That was nice.

Friday, May 22nd 2009: Rest.

Saturday, May 23rd 2009: 10 miles in 1 hour 55 minutes. Me and Running are friends again after last week's brutality. The run today went great. Mel and I left at 5:30am and tried an experiment. We went slower, and stopped every mile to stretch and walk for 1 minute, whether we felt like it or not.

This worked perfectly. I wasn't hurting and exhausted and was able to get into the zone where I'm thinking about other things besides assessing which part of my body hurts the most. I planned to just run 9 miles but felt so good at that point that I ran one more.

I'm really going to work on slowing down for my long runs and doing more stretching during the run. I think this will help reduce the possibility of wanting to stop, curl up in fetal position, and spend the rest of the night sleeping on the side of the road.