Jack and Jill Marathon 2019

Jack and Jill Marathon 2019

I have let myself down and the folks that follow me over the past couple of years by not sharing my adventures. Not sure if it has been from all the issues I have had or not meeting my goals or just my inverted side, yes I have this side to me sometimes!

            

The end of 2018 was packed with many let downs. First was my second sinus surgery and worst of all vestibular neuritis – say that fast 5 times! 

Vestibular neuritis is an inner ear disorder that may cause a person to experience such symptoms as sudden, severe vertigo (spinning/swaying sensation), dizziness, balance problems, nausea and vomiting.

I could go into this topic for a complete blog post but I will cut to the details.  I couldn’t drive for three solid weeks and couldn’t ride my bike for about six weeks, life changing!!!   According to my specialist I will have to deal with this for years to come, but I have advanced rapidly in my therapy.  But I’m still fighting symptoms!

December 2018 I ran Dallas White Rock for the third year in a row and I ran a Boston Qualifier for 2019 with a time of 3:08, however registration was already closed for 2019. And then I found out that Boston had changed the qualifying time to a 3:05 for my age group!  After I finished this race I was so dizzy I could barely walk but despite this I felt like I had the perfect day with a strong finish!

Without my winter training on the bike or running I put on some weight, 192lbs NAKED!  The heaviest I had been in my life.   Inspired by Beach Body Leader, Juleah Brooks I started writing down my weight and watching what I ate a little closer and also thinking of how daily working out is so good for my body, mind, and soul.  Shout out to you girl for inspiring so many and keeping to the plan!  It is the same plan I have, you write down a goal and chase after it!

I love running the OKC Memorial Marathon and was glad to get back out on a new course.  My run was ok but I really didn’t have the fitness needed, however it was great in my training block leading up to the Jack and Jill Marathon.  Then I moved back to my love of Mountain Biking. I had skipped many bike races in the fall and the spring but I just couldn’t miss my favorite Ouachita Challenge 2019. Even though I didn’t race well, I knew this was a good building block for me moving forward to fitness goal and getting closer to a BQ, Boston Qualifier.  I had managed to work my way down to 173 lbs – ALMOST A 20 lb DROP!

Sorry for the long background, but I felt it was essential since I haven’t been blogged about races in a long time stemming from the frustration of no motivation, drive and all kinds of sickness.

Jack and Jill Marathon – Northbend, WA –  July 2019

We got off the shuttle bus at the top of the mountain at 6:28 am and the race started at 6:30. I ran to get in the port-a-jon line, but Kristin said heck with the port-a-jon and headed to the woods.  Then we still had about a ¼ of a mile to run to get to the start, my mind was racing as I didn’t want to miss the start.  I wasn’t so much worried about missing the start as they have chip timing but the dilemma is you head into a 2.5 mile tunnel a little over ¼ mile into the race.  I didn’t want to get trapped in the back and have trouble passing in the tunnel!  Yes I did say 2.5 MILES of tunnel, so bring a headlamp if you run this marathon. Starting temp was 49ish and in the tunnel was around 45ish.  It was amazing but I didn’t have gloves and was only running in a singlet.  I loved not worrying about my pace at the beginning of the race because of the tunnel.  It was very quiet with footsteps echoing throughout the tunnel.   The footing was small gravel and dirt and 90% of my training is on the Frisco Trail in Poteau, an old railroad trail, which is the same surface. But this old railroad path was 26.2 miles going down a mountain dropping 2500 feet.  So yes downhill the complete way with only a 15 foot climb at mile 8!

We came out of the tunnel and dropped our headlamps and I hit the first aid station and felt like I was flying.   I then begin to look at my watch wondering if it would find satellite soon and start giving me some accurate mile splits.

I hit the 10k mark at 6:30 average pace.  The last few 5k’s I ran were at 6:15 pace so this was a little scary but I could tell my heart was low and my pace was doing ok.

There were not a lot of runners to talk to so I was just took in the amazing views of the trees and mountains on this overcast morning. 

Half Marathon Marker 1:28:30, I missed a box of gels they had and I was little sad because I was really wanting a couple. Thankfully I had 5 packed but I knew if things went south I would start slamming them.  The sun began to break through the clouds off and on, and you could feel the temps change. Often running from the sun to the shade would cause a drop of 8 to10 degrees. When you would curve into a massive forest and hear waterfalls and the water running or crossing a bridge would have to be my favorite parts of the race!  Over this gradual descent you would always be looking at the next corner, curve or forest.  It really helped to keep my mind off of (this hurts, you didn’t train enough, you could blowup any second!)

Mile 20 (The Wall) – We dropped into a couple steep hills that were short and this was when I knew my quads were totally trashed!  I had been looking at my splits around 18 and I knew I was slowing, but with my training base of miles this was sure to happen.  The next 3 miles my mind was in a place of “you got this” and my body was like “no you need to slow down!”  I lost about 30 seconds per mile from mile 20 to 23 and if I was looking at 3 more miles at this pace I wasn’t going to qualify for Boston with a 3:05. I needed just about 7 minute per mile pace and with a 7:28 at mile 23 my mind was beginning to see Boston 2020 slip away!  But my running buddies before the race said, “Take your mind to your happy place,” a place that says, “You got this!” I begin remembering the past few months of training and my mind took me to long runs with Stevie & Jenny Chitwood and my amazing wife Kristin. Thinking, “Stevie could only run about 5 miles at a time last year and he is going to be right behind me today in his first full marathon!  Knowing that the hardest devoted fitness chicks in Leflore County would be kicking my shoes as they put in the work and miles to be major veteran Boston Qualifiers! Picturing an early morning run with my son Stihl on the Frisco Trail and how he wanted to race the last ¼ mile and I couldn’t beat him no matter how hard I tried!  Pounding miles with gallons upon gallons of sweat! My mind said, “You might not get this chance on that trail with this weather to get a BQ, so forget it and run!”   I somehow got my body to give me 3 hard miles!  But not without the most pain I have had at the finish of a marathon, mostly because normally I would slow down.

 

Mile 26 – With 2 tenths of a mile to go there was a lady standing on the corner right before the mile 26 sign. She said, “You are amazing, “Your almost there, you got this!” she was screaming. I couldn’t see the finish line and my watch mileage had been all over the charts from the beginning with the long tunnel!  But that lady was my hero. Because as I finally turned the slow long last corner I saw 50 different state flags flying and lots of folks cheering.  The announcer said, “Josh Snyder, Poteau, OK you just qualified for Boston Marathon!

After the marathon we went to Seattle and hung out. We had plenty of laughs at how blown up my quads were! We drove our cool rental Jeep onto Washington State’s Ferry and into the Olympic National Forest.  We spent several days hiking, cliff jumping, cold water soaking, waterfall hunting, fishing, ocean gazing and my wives favorite detour from the plan, Off ROAD JEEPING!

 

It is so pretty in Washington I can’t explain it.  The mountains are steep and the tree’s are huge!  I could sit in the wild and drink coffee for hours in Seattle’s outer regions.

My wife is the best planner for a vacation and has had the details for this trip nailed down for months. Plus she writes training plans and is probably the most driven, amazing women I know! I love you and thank you for planning such am amazing trip that would take me 10 blogs to explain the adventures and memories we made and I can’t wait to make a million more with you! Happy 16^thanniversary!

Boston Marathon 2014

Boston Marathon 2014

            When signing up for “the Boston Marathon 2014,” I knew my wife wouldn’t be going on this trip and didn’t look at the calendar until it came time to get my plane ticket and it would put me flying out 2 hours after our Church Easter Service which I lead the music so I couldn’t miss nor did I want to miss the biggest service of the year service was pretty amazing!  So I jumped in the truck and flew out of XNA Rogers, AR and made my flight just in time.  I arrived at my Hotel at 11:00pm to stay the night with Matt Aguero my long time marathon buddy.  They changed the rules this year and said you have to pick up your race bib and chip in person with an ID because of the increased security.  I emailed (BAA) Boston Athletic Association probably 3 to 4 weeks prior to the race not knowing if I could get on the bus to get to the race without a bib, let along get an official time or even this year get scanned with a metal detector before getting into the start of the race.  My wife would call me crazy for trying to go and race without a bib, but soon after the BAA emailed me back and told me to call them on Tuesday 6 days before the race.  They then told me I could pick up my bib the morning of the race at 6am at location that I wouldn’t tell anyone and that I wouldn’t tell anyone that they were handing my bib out after the running expo had closed.  It happened to the lobby of my hotel, small world and I began to think the stars were aligning for me to run a great Boston Marathon.

            This would be my 3^rd Boston Marathon and for the 2 previous years I hadn’t ran well, the course, crowd and weather seem to be perfect but I hadn’t even qualified for Boston at Boston Marathon which meant thousands of runners had passed me previous years.  This Race was to be different because I was having an the best spring I had ever had with many top finishes in 50k trail runs, Trail Marathons and in the peak training ran just a few seconds slower than my half-marathon PR on a very hard course at the Vike-Hike Half-Marathon to out kick another racer to finish 1^st place at a 6:14 overall pace with 700 feet of elevation gain.  This means a 6:35 to 6:45 pace at Boston should be a breeze right?  And if I were to run much slower I might not catch my plane back to home!

            Matt Aguero usually trains and runs 2 marathons per year, 1 spring and 1 fall, and he is the most consistent runner I have ever seen with splits training and race times!  I took his training for Boston Marathon 2013 (bombing year) and didn’t run well.  So I looked at my past training from my PR at Tulsa marathon on a hilly course, which was cross training and doing many races and applied it to my 2014 Boston Approach.   I would hope for the best I got pretty beat up after the Vike Hike it was all concrete, but what got me worse was a sinus infection and a bad case of poison ivy which would lead to a trip to the Doctor and the nurse getting to give me a shot in the butt!  I hate shots, as the nurse said, “for a guy that runs marathons you sure scared of a little needle.”  This would lead to clearing up my sinus mess and clear up the P-Ivey.

            A week later at starting line me and Matt would have to wait in line to get into the start of the race as they were scanning runners with metal detectors, guards with 243 assault rifles standing on the building tops everywhere!  Then before I knew it there was a moment of silence for the victims the previous year and the gun fired to start the 2014 race.  I turned to the guys next to me and ask if they put sunscreen on and one of them said, “looks like we are setting in the tan lines for the summer today, have a great race bub and by this time we were finally moving as I started about 4,000 to 5,000 runs back from the starting line.  This is also what the BAA would guess my finish place from my previous qualifier at Tulsa Marathon with a 2:58

            I would cross the line and think of the victoms of the previous year and think of my wife and brand new baby girl walking right through where the bombs seems to be way to soon after she has passed in the explosion points, even though it was an hour later!  And I would start my fast pace of 2 super fast downhill miles at the start of the Marathon.  Whatever pace you want to run at Boston it will be about 30 to 45 seconds faster at the first 2 miles because they are fast and everyone is stinking fast!

I would soon hit a crazy wall at mile 11 as I was setting in a perfect pace but I couldn’t breathe and my ears were feeling blocked and my sinus system was just failing.  I would push on holding pace knowing it wasn’t good but hoping it would pass.  Every marathon has a moment sometimes hopefully short but a moment that feels like wow this stinking hurts but hopefully passes so you can press forward.  But this wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t going to get better.  The level of effort to the production of pace felt like a steam train that was burning up all the coal and starting to burn on the left over fly ash at mile 15. Pressing this pace with no air wasn’t that hard until my legs said they were done going with out blood and air flowing to them!

            This would be the start of not a death march because I would keep running at all cost with now the thought of missing my plane that was to leave 2 hours after my planned sub 3-Hour-Marathon.  I would hope the best for now just making the plane.  It would be the hardest my body as pushed through pain.   Sad when you have the best crowd cheering you from starting line to finish line, 26 miles streets lined with cheering fans and tons of  “Boston Strong” sign everywhere! I had my name and Heb. 12:1 on the side of my arm on each side which would leave a pretty cool sunburn tattoo on my right arm!  But the crowd wouldn’t just scream for Meb USA Boston Champing setting a new PR and retiring from Marathon racing but would cheer for the Okie with Joshua on his arm with the wheels falling off!

Wesley College (all girls halfway mark and they scream so loud!)

I finished at a rough 3:35ish and wow what a day feeling as medical folks were trying to take me to the medic tent and I told them I didn’t have time to go to it. 

I walked through the madness of a marathon finish and leaned against a rail trying to give my body a rest as a medical student said you need to get in the wheel chair and go to the medical tent.  I told him my flight was leaving in 1 hour he said from, “you better get going!”  And I did, I soon a volunteer if I was going the correct way to get to my hotel and get my bag because they didn’t check bags at the finish now.  She tried to turn me around and I told her she was wrong.  She said, “where are you from? Because I am from Boston.”  But I didn’t take her advise and glad I didn’t I stopped at the next block and ask again and my hotel was right, “thank God I am going to make my flight.”  I was feeling sick as I would walk what seemed to be 50 yards and then have to stop and lean against the wall or whatever I could find as I felt I was going to throw up on since I had crossed the finish line.  I came into the hotel room and there was Matt he had ran an amazing time and finish 190^th out of almost 40,000 runners, truly an amazing marathoner with a 2:35 finish! WOW I told him I was not doing good and hadn’t had a good day and he said sit down I said I have to get my bag and go there was not time to change clothes it was get to the airport!  He walked me out and helped me get a taxi!  Thank you Matt you are an amazing friend!  I then would take off my shoes and put on a different pair of shoes.  Why do taxi’s crack the windows? Saving gas? Because it was hot in that taxi and then when hit the tunnel going under the water you smell all the exhaust from other cars and it was enough to put me into a cold sweat and you know what comes next!  Yes Matt the good friend he was had given me an extra check bag that he had picked up at the running expo for me!  Told him the night before I didn’t need it but my head was buried it in now throwing up 2 Gatorade’s, 2 gels and a water!  The taxi drive was screaming and pulled over super fast and rips the door open to see a nasty taxi but it was all in the clear check bag and I held it up like a trophy and he was so grateful it almost made me smile.  But I still was hurting and continue my 50 yard segment stop.  Got into the airport got my ticket process going and ask the airline agent for a bag and she said we don’t have any and I told her I just threw up in the taxi and she found one really fast for me!  Remind you I now am wearing flip flops, a race jersey, short shorts and backpack in one hand and an empty K-mart bag in the other hand.  And if you want sympathy from TSA you never get it. But if you walk in like you had just finished the hardest marathon in your life they will rub your back, help you get your stuff checked even walk you to the bench with your shoes!

I no looked at my watch and still had 30 minutes so I walked into the food court and bought a water from McDonalds because they didn’t have a cup of ice water so spent $2.78 on 16 ounces of water and drank it.  I then sit down and put my head down on the table.  This was the finally the point where I felt like I stopped moving since I crossed the finish line.   Sat there until I figured I better change closes in the bathroom another 50 yards and head to the gate, which was about 50 more yards.  I sat at the gate and looked at Starbucks thinking I needed another water but it was past my range it was 100 yards!  I didn’t really care that a bottle of water was going to cost me 3 bucks at this point it was just I didn’t think it was worth the effort of 200 yards!  So then I got a text from Josh Wiersig that said he was praying for me because he had checked on me early and I texted him and told him I was hurting bad!  He said “I am praying for you.”  Well I know God had answered his prayer as I sat at the end of line as I always do waiting to get on a plane a man handed me a 1.5 liter bottle of water! He said, “you looked like you needed this I saw you come in earlier and something just told me to buy you this.”  Then the flight attendant saw I was hurting and got me a whole row to myself to lye down in.  She soon would place her hand on me and I jumped and cramped. She said, “was checking to make sure you were still alive!”

            Still don’t know why I didn’t run well at Boston, could be sinus troubles, could be I was over trained, or wore down from so many races this Spring?  I plan to go to Boston again when my wife gets her a BQ and we plan a longer adventure together.

In the mean time another Marathon another day! Sign up for a race and get out there and TRAIN!

Meb Winning!