Joshua Grzegorzewski: the RunningBull Blog: "RunningBull's Run" producing surprising results

Not so surprising is that I was unable to find 10 minutes this weekend to post this update, but I am getting ahead of myself.

I have to believe that my Tempo Hill run described in my previous posting helped make a difference for the Bataan Death March Memorial Marathon because after months of training in Boston, 65-degree (and rising) temperatures, 5000 foot elevation (see attached course profile), and over 20 miles of loose rocky/sandy trails should have destroyed me. Instead, I was not only able to finish in a time just 4 seconds slower than my Boston Marathon finish from last year, but I finished 1st in my Division and in 5th place overall.

Granted, I will be lucky to finish 5,000th in my next marathon, the Boston Marathon, in just 11 days.

However, I am not going to live too far in the future when I can still savor my recent success and remember the inspirations and motivations that helped buoy me on through the incredible challenges of the course. Did I mention the near constant winds that were in our faces on the inclines? The send off we received from the former POWs who survived the Death March, the camps, the transport ships, and all of the horors that came with each and the knowledge that whatever discomfort, pain, injury, case of dehydration, or other ailment that I might suffer over the course of those 26.2 miles, it would be only a drop in the bucket compared to what they overcame. Putting things into perspective like that helped me to appreciate my accomplishment, but made me give even more credit to the teams that completed this endeavor together and those individuals who finished the event wearing full military uniforms, complete with boots and 35lb packs. Those "heavy" division participants were the reason that I went back out on the course in the full mid-day sun for 3 hours after I finished, rinsed off the sweat and grime, and ate before I finally had to drive back to El Paso for my return flight to Boston.

I am now providing links to my events and results from my campaign pledge page for those who want to follow along with my progress.

There, that wasn't too bad...it just took about twice as long as I expected it would. Now I have to run to catch up with my weekly Nike Run Club.

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