In 2001 I started exercising because I had gotten fat! My body fat was over 30% and my weight was over 180. My waist line was up to 34 and going higher. I am currently at 155, 7% body fat and my waist is 31.

My first race was the Hinsdale 5K where I had a time of 24:17 for the 3.1 miles. I averaged 7:49. I finished 102 out of 426 finishers. I was 18 out of 35 in the age group 35 to 39. I did one more race that year which was the 2001 Frank Lloyd Wright Races. I did the 5K and had a time of 22:49. I averaged 7:21/mile. I placed 44 out of 144 participants. I was 36 out 91 male runners. No bad for just getting back to running!

It is hard to believe when I started exercising that it would lead to me doing marathons then ultramarathons, then triathlons leading to being a 4-time Ironman finisher. It is just amazing when I look at these pictures.

Well let's look at them. The first one is me crossing the Indianapolis Half Marathon May 2002. I did pretty good 1 hour 45 minutes, 52 seconds. I was happy with that time. I am currently training for the Disney Half Marathon and hope to break 1:30! Late in 2002 I did the Twin Cities Marathon. Man was that hilly! Again I thought I could break 4 hours and finally I did! My chip time was 3:58.24. My pace was 9:15.

In 2003 I did Grandma's Marathon in Duluth Minnesota. What a beautiful race venue! We stayed right next to Lake Superior in a cabin that was located at mile marker 6 on the course. Again I had a suboptimal race. My chip time was 3:55.01. What happens in the races? It wasn't until years later (basically 2006) that I realized why I wasn't do as well as I should of during these races. You see at Grandma's Marathon, my training partner Tim Kenny did something like 3:16 or something. We did the same training, but yet he did much better. In 2006 I started working on the mental side of the sport. It was only then that I learned to relax and have fun. I put too much pressure on myself during the races. This would artificially elevated my resting pulse, which decreased my speed tremendously. I also learned how to do negative splits. I would start out too fast during the races. 2006 I had the best racing season, which carried over into 2007.

The next picture 2003 above (I am wearing 153) was on 8/20/02 it was the Elvis is Alive 5K that they do in Chicago. I ran 21:27, but most of all had a great time at the race and after. It was a blast!

The last two pictures were taken on 6/8/02 when I did the Sunburst Marathon. It is the marathon done in South Bend Indiana, where you finish in Notre Dame stadium. It was a very hot day. I finished in 4:13:37. I finished at about the 50th percentile in my age group and overall. I had a pretty rough day.

To this day even after like 8 marathons I have had only one where I felt I ran well. I still have not reached my potential in a marathon and still desire to train for another and hopefully have my day. I often run and train with people who do 3:10-3:20 marathon times but yet my PR is 3:46. I know don't shed too many tears for me!