"No Pressure"

Nick Morris wrote:

Julie wrote:I don't understand why a charity wouldn't want someone to raise funds for them. Am I missing something?

I think that it comes down to only having so many spots and they want to get the most lucrative donors in to get the most fund raising.

OK, yeah I had thought that after I asked. Well, I wish you the best in getting a good spot with a charity you really care about. There are so many good organizations out there.

Julie wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:

Julie wrote:I don't understand why a charity wouldn't want someone to raise funds for them. Am I missing something?

I think that it comes down to only having so many spots and they want to get the most lucrative donors in to get the most fund raising.

OK, yeah I had thought that after I asked. Well, I wish you the best in getting a good spot with a charity you really care about. There are so many good organizations out there.

Do the applications ask how much you can raise?

ounce wrote:

Julie wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:

Julie wrote:I don't understand why a charity wouldn't want someone to raise funds for them. Am I missing something?

I think that it comes down to only having so many spots and they want to get the most lucrative donors in to get the most fund raising.

OK, yeah I had thought that after I asked. Well, I wish you the best in getting a good spot with a charity you really care about. There are so many good organizations out there.

Do the applications ask how much you can raise?

Yes, they ask what your fundraising goal is. I actually had to submit a detailed plan stating exactly how I plan on raising the funds...to the dollar.

4 taper miles this morning in Denver. My meetings didn't start as early this morning. Which meant that I was able to get my miles in after the sun was up. Tomorrow is an off/travel day as I head back to Madison in the evening following some morning meetings.

I was able to hop on an earlier flight yesterday afternoon and made it back home from Denver an hour earlier than I was originally schedule to. I plan on getting in an easy 2 miles tonight and then start packing for the weekend race.

Here we are...race day. It just seems like yesterday that I started the training. 19 weeks went by fast!! I lucked out this year, because the temp is 37 degrees this morning (feels like 31 with the wind chill) and will reach in the middle to upper 40s by the time that I finish. Beginning of October marathons are a crap shoot for weather.

Yesterday we ran the last part of the course through wind and drizzle. It was a good 2.80 miles to get the blood going. Should be a nice course...

Looks like you got great weather Nick.  Make the best of it and have a great race!

Hope its going well!

Nicely done, sir! I wish I could "not race" that fast!

Good job, Nick!

Tom H wrote:Looks like you got great weather Nick.  Make the best of it and have a great race!

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Hope its going well!

Mark B wrote:Nicely done, sir! I wish I could "not race" that fast!

Jim Lentz wrote:Good job, Nick!

Thanks everyone!!!

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon

Race day came and went. It was a great day for a marathon, with a temperature of 37 at race start and a slight head/cross wind of 6 mph. my plan was to run with my friend, Pete, and hold 7:30s for as long as he could. From there, we would just try to make it to the end We started out not too fast, as we averaged 7:28 for the first 4 miles. A quick stop at the porta-john for Pete to pee (i decided I would too, which is the first time that I have ever peed during a race) at mil 7 put us back to a 7:34 average pace, but right where we wanted to be. A little more than the first half of the course was rolling hills that seemed to climb. Just when I thought that there would be a large downhill, my thoughts were wrong and we would climb some more. We get to mile 14 and I could tell that Pete was tiring, our paces were climbing to the upper 7:40s and lower 7:50s. I told him that it's alright and we will gut it out. We continued on and by mile 18, he was shot. I'll admit that I was tired too, but the more I slowed down the farther he would be behind me. We stopped two more times, because he needed to pee and the last stop at mile 20, he almost vomited. We kept on, though, as our projected finish kept rising. The 3:30 projection went out the door and it was more about finishing than anything else. At about mile 23 1/2 my legs started to hate me enough to where I had to bear down myself. Pete was able to stick with me until about a half mile to go and then he just couldn't quite move as fast. Knowing that he would make it, I continued on and finished at 3:40:xx. Pete followed me in at 3:41:xx. Definitely not a fast run for me, but I wasn't really trying to run fast, anyways.

It was a nice course on a great day and I think that if I was in decent shape, I would have had a good shot at a PR.

Well done, but what is this temperature you speak of with a 3 or a 4 in the tens slot?  You mean temps go below 70 elsewhere?

Nice run with your friend, Nick.  I'm betting you expended a lot more mental energy than you realized which can be tiring in itself (I know as I just paced my friend through the last 20 at Akron and it was tough).  Have you heard from any of those charities yet?

That sounded like my Boston this year  Nice job getting him to the finish

ounce wrote:Well done, but what is this temperature you speak of with a 3 or a 4 in the tens slot?  You mean temps go below 70 elsewhere?

When you live in the arctic like I do, summer doesn't last that long.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Nice run with your friend, Nick.  I'm betting you expended a lot more mental energy than you realized which can be tiring in itself (I know as I jsut paced my friend through the last 20 at Akron and it was tough).  Have you heard from any of those charities yet?

Yes, it was definitely a mental grind. My body doesn't feel too bad today, although I got a purple toenail out of it

In regards to the charities, I have not heard anything when it comes to the actual selection. I did have to submit a detailed, line item, fundraising plan for one of them. They then replied stating that it will still be a couple of weeks to review. I am hoping I will know before the end of October. They are cutting into my fundraising time

fostever wrote:That sounded like my Boston this year  Nice job getting him to the finish

Thanks. It's been a while since I had that much of a mental grinding race/run.

Nice work, Nick. Sounds like you found out what I did a few years ago when I decided to run, not race, a marathon: It's still quite a ways, and it can get pretty uncomfortable even at an "easier" pace. Go figure!

Nice of you to help your friend through it.

Mark B wrote:Nice work, Nick. Sounds like you found out what I did a few years ago when I decided to run, not race, a marathon: It's still quite a ways, and it can get pretty uncomfortable even at an "easier" pace. Go figure!

Nice of you to help your friend through it.

The funny thing about running is that "any" run can get uncomfortable.

Nick Morris wrote: We started out not too fast, as we averaged 7:28 for the first 4 miles.  A quick stop at the porta-john for Pete to pee (i decided I would too, which is the first time that I have ever peed during a race) at mil 7 put us back to a 7:34 average pace, but right where we wanted to be.  

So I take it that a part of your training was speed-peeing as well?  A 7:28 to a 7:34 means you spent very little time watering the bushes!

Tom H wrote:

Nick Morris wrote: We started out not too fast, as we averaged 7:28 for the first 4 miles.  A quick stop at the porta-john for Pete to pee (i decided I would too, which is the first time that I have ever peed during a race) at mil 7 put us back to a 7:34 average pace, but right where we wanted to be.  

So I take it that a part of your training was speed-peeing as well?  A 7:28 to a 7:34 means you spent very little time watering the bushes!

I calculated it out to be about 42 seconds of peeing time

I don't like stopping, but since he was stopping, I figured I should too.

Wow, great job! That was great you could help your friend out and I'm pretty impressed that was your first marathon taking a potty stop. It's still a lot of miles even if that wasn't your normal marathon pace so I hope you give yourself a break this week.

Julie wrote:Wow, great job! That was great you could help your friend out and I'm pretty impressed that was your first marathon taking a potty stop. It's still a lot of miles even if that wasn't your normal marathon pace so I hope you give yourself a break this week.

Thanks and yes, my plan is to take this week off. Then work my way back into running next week.

Update on Boston Charities...

I heard back from one charity this morning, stating that they are full and are not able to accept my application. They did put me on their wait list, though. So, one down and three to go...