Denver Disappointment

Well, for a change I am posting (Steven). Many of you know I have been training for my first marathon since approximately February. I had only one goal and that was to qualify for the Boston Marathon. After months and months of training the day of the Denver Marathon had come.

Friday after work I went to the Adams Mark hotel to pick up my race packet, and wonder around the expo. I wasn’t particularly interested in staying there for long as it was just making me more nervous for the race. I picked up my number, got my shirt and made one lap around not really stopping at any of the booths. I then went home and was pleasantly surprised to come home to my mom and dad and little sister. Apparently my wife had made secret plans in august for them to come out. I pretty much stood in the family room with my mouth to the floor in shock. Thanks Ashley for putting that together.

Saturday we laid low as I didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize my performance on Sunday. We ended up going to Crocs to watch the Ohio State Football game and then going home for more rest and relaxation. I apologize to my family for it being such a boring weekend, as we didn’t leave the couch for most of it.

Sunday morning came and it was finally time to run my first marathon. It was pretty cold and rainy as we drove downtown. Ashley was going to drop me off at the Capitol and then proceed to Coors Field where they were going to see me. After I was dropped off I ran around and stretched before the race, the normal race preparation.

The gun went off and here we go. I tried to control my pace, as I knew if I went out too fast I would be toast in the later miles. Well, that didn’t go over so well. I passed mile 2 in 12:00 not good…. I was already 2 and a half minutes too fast and figured I would be paying for this later. I was running with a group of women that seemed to have a comfortable pace. I later found out these were the elite women that I couldn’t even compare too. Haha oops. I ran with them until mile 5 where they pretty much took off. We ran all over Denver and really I had no clue where I was just watching for water and the mile signs. I was actually feeling very good and besides being a little cold I was doing much better than I expected. At mile 12 I once again saw my fan club, (Ashley, mom, dad, and Britt) mile 12 was pretty rough on me. I was craving these candies that were supposed to be with Ashley to give me a little energy. Well rushing 5 people into our 1 bathroom the candies remained in our kitchen. I wasn’t so happy at that point. Mile 13 came and I began to feel much better, I am guessing 12 was a little hilly and boring and that made it kind of rough. So there I was at the half marathon mark I checked the clock and my pace band and I was 12 minutes fast! What a great feeling. However, I was hoping I wouldn’t later pay for this. Mile 13 to 18 I was really just looking forward to water and watching for signs. They seemed to come and go and my time seemed to be great. Mile 18 still 8 minutes ahead of pace. I was watching my watch as I knew all my mile times and where they should be and I continued to be way ahead. I never worried about not qualifying. I was feeling pretty good for being at mile 18, 19, and 20. Mile 20 is when things started to get fuzzy and go unbelievably bad. When I reached for the Gatorade at mile 20 the volunteer asked if I was ok, to which I answered yes. He then asked if I wanted to stop, um no! I’m good thanks. As I ran off he yelled at me your health is more important than a race. I really had no clue what he was talking about so I just ignored him and kept running. Somewhere after the mile 21 sign a woman asked if I was ok, I said yes, just getting to the finish. She then replied I will alert first aid for you. I didn’t know why she had said this and my instinct was to bark back NO! I’M FINE. Mentally I was perfectly fine and was still keeping my pace, but countless people were making comments to me about being ok. But why? Apparently when that woman got to the next water station she must have alerted them to me. I grabbed a water at mile 22 and was off. Somewhere in there I must have been stumbling all over the place or something and some man stopped and put his long sleeve dry fit shirt on me, gave me some jelly belly energy beans and told me to get help. I still didn’t think anything was wrong and wanted to keep running. At that time a bike paramedic greeted me. He asked if I was ok and I said yes. He asked me to come with him and I kindly replied I’m finishing this! He then seemed to ok it and said he would ride beside me for a while. I didn’t care what he wanted to do I was still 5 minutes ahead of pace and I was getting to Boston. After about 2 minutes of him keeping conversation with me my body shut down. Apparently everybody knew what was going on except me. Hypothermia….. I tried to continue but he wouldn’t let me. Between my stumbles he kind of bear hugged me and put two space blankets around me and then taped them very tightly to me. I still tried to continue and half crying half passing out told him I was finishing the race. He lied to me to get me to go into blockbuster to warm up and then he would let me finish the race. Once inside blockbuster any hope at finishing was gone as he had called EMT to come pick me up. I wasn’t very happy with that guy!

I was then taken to the finish emergency tent and stripped of all my wet clothes and wrapped in space blankets, blankets, heat packs, and laid on a cot next to a heater. I really didn’t want to be there and was angry as I watched my training go right out the window. I didn’t even know what was technically happening. I laid there while the volunteers continued to monitor me and try to take my temperature which wasn’t working. Apparently that can get too low not to register so that was fun. Now my only concern was how am I ever going to find my family while I’m in here? After about 15 minutes a Dr. said Mr Hall? Your father is outside. They wouldn’t let him back where I was and all he knew was I had a half hour to regain normal body temperature or I would be going to the emergency room. Long story short after about an hour and a half they let me go. I have never shivered so violently my entire life. In retrospect I was pretty out of it.

Mentally I couldn’t write off what happened to the cold. I didn’t understand if I was running how I would get cold enough to get hypothermia. I still doubted myself more than the weather until my wife searched for hypothermia on wikepedia. We are guessing I was at stage 2 hypothermia as those symotoms match. Not a great day for a run!

Thanks Ashley, Mom, Dad, and Britt for everything!

Freaky Mushroom Arms

This weekend we started a saltwater aquarium. We bought "live rock" to build a pretend reef. Live means it has things growing on it like algae, bacteria, etc. These are all very good things for saltwater aquariums. The guy at the pet store said we were in luck because the rocks we choose had Green Mushrooms growing on it (see above picture). At first I thought they were fungi like most mushrooms. Then I noticed they opened and closed when the water pressure would hit them, so I thought they me be animals. Lots of things in the ocean that look like plants are actually animals. So I looked them up, and yes they are animals - they are really called the Green Mushroom Anemone. It said they mostly survive from photosynthesis of the algae that live off it, but can be supplemented with live food like brine shrimp. I didn't really know how to feed it shrimp. I mentioned this to a guy at work, and he said the belly button looking thing (I think it looks like an outie belly button) was their mouth. When I went to feed our 4 fish tonight, I decided I would try to put a shrimp into the belly button. It didn't open and eat it or anything, but ARMS came out from underneath and GRABBED the shrimp. Steve and I were totally freaking out and kind of grossed out. So then I was putting shrimp by all the anemones and watching their arms come out. TOTALLY CREEPY! Just freaking weird!

Steve also noticed this purple and white thing come out of a hole in the rock that looked like a fuzzy pipe cleaner. It also ate 3 shrimp. Not sure what the heck that thing was...