Fastest Marathon Ever!

The first team eLB marathon is complete!  Sister Kim and I ran our fastest marathons ever! (ok…it was also our first marathon ever) The St George Marathon was 10/3 in St George Utah and the race went through the beautiful Snow Canyon area.

I (Brother Andrew) was only 5 1/2 weeks out from my collarbone surgery and was out of training for about 3 weeks. So needless to say my body was not in the best shape. I don’t think that the medicine, trauma, lack of sleep, and plate/screws helped either. My goal was to come in under 4 hours and to not walk. I was able to do it! (3:53 and no walking). I would love to do it again but I’m not sure when yet. The biggest thing that I learned it that I LOVE icy-hot. They had icy-hot stations every few miles. It feels really nice on aching legs

Sister Kim did a great job as well. This is her first shot at running. She started to really feel it at about mile 20 and had to “gut it out” the rest of the way. Her husband (Brother Shawn) went out to see/encourage her during the last stretch. Sister Kim was surrounded by her 4 daughters as she crossed the finish line.

This was a great experience and we’ll remember it forever!

Collar Bone Broken, Marathon in Doubt

As some of you know Team eLB is sponsoring 2 runners in the St George Marathon this year (Brother Andrew and Sister Kim…Shawn’s wife). After many months of training I (Brother Andrew) may not be able to attempt my first marathon.

About 2 weeks ago I went mountain biking up Big Cottonwood canyon on the Wasatch Crest trail.  After 2 flat tires and climbing Puke Hill (earning my “downhill time”) I ended up crashing and bringing my summer to a grinding halt. I was going a little fast down a long single track when I hit a slight jump and came down on the side wall of the trail. I came flying off the bike and sliding head first for what seemed forever. When I got up everything seemed fine except that my shoulder burned. When I touched my shoulder I immediately felt my broken collar bone. I was in shock. I’ve crashed many times and never broken anything.

So for the next 2 hours I walked 4 miles down the mountain back to the car. My neighbor Jake had the great honor of trying to drag our bikes down the single track trail. He even got a bug out of my eye around mile 2 and got to drive me down the canyon to the hospital.

Finally after making it to the hospital I got some numbing shots and got to see the first x-rays. The bone was snapped in 2 places and the doc said that it would be about 5-6 weeks to heal. The marathon was 6 weeks from that date.

I few days later I went in for surgery and got a nice 3″-4″ titanium plate and 7 screws to hold it all together. Good thing we had already hit our medical deductible with the baby earlier this year. (so the surgery was free)

So, I’ve been out of the office for 2 weeks now and am hoping to be back on Tues. Things are starting to heal slowing but I haven’t been able to train for awhile now. There’s about a 50/50 chance that I’ll be ready by Oct 3rd. Even if my shoulder starts feeling fine I don’t know if it’ll make 26.2 miles. I guess I’ll soon find out. Stay tuned…

PS…in case you were wondering about my bike…it’s fine, nothing broken. I guess in the end that’s what’s really important

Holy Cow! How long is 26.2 miles?

Well, with just over a month left before the St. George Marathon, team eLB is hard at work.

Sister Kim ran her first road race on July 24th. Every year Salt Lake City has the Deseret News 10k on Pioneer Day. She did great and dropped her average mile pace by about 2 minutes!

I (Brother Andrew) did 14 miles on Saturday evening and am now starting to understand how far 26.2 miles really is. My legs where pretty beat when I was done. (humm…I have to basically go double that for the marathon…that seems crazy!) Back in June I also tried my first sprint Triathlon and realized why I run instead of swim. I was the last person out of the pool. Maybe after the marathon I’ll learn how to be a better swimmer.

Well…stay tuned.  Marathon coming Oct 3rd!

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