Marathon pictures- part 3

Here are a couple of pictures Chad's wife and another family member spectator took. These are probably the best ones of us during the race!

Marathon pictures- part 2

The team eating dinner the night before the race


Notice the bib number on the confirmation ticket and the number behind Chad



At the expo


Time until the marathon started


Find Waldo...


Laser Teeth Whitening? At a race expo? Weird...




The Clif Bar Tent!


Random cool building

Person
Bib#:	44171
Last Name:	Fisk
First Name:	Ben
City:	Elbert
State:	CO
CTZ:	USA
Age:	24
Gender:	M
TIME
5K:	0:30:42
10K:	0:59:59
15K:	1:29:43
20K:	1:59:20
HALF:	2:06:41
25K:	2:30:10
30K:	3:01:00
35K:	3:32:31
40K:	4:05:37
FINISH:	4:19:26
Chip Time:	4:19:26
Clock:	4:30:05
Pace / mile:	9:53
Placement
Overall:	10151
Gender:	7160
Division:	559

Marathon pictures- part 1

(click on any of the pictures to make them larger)

Soon after completing 26.2 miles!




Steve and Chad



Running buddy Chad and me


The compilation of toe injuries--mine is the bloody one =(


A couple of hours after the marathon.


The four of us supporting the Alpha Foundation (notice the Alpha shirts)


Showing off our medals


The "pro life" van.


Most of the pro life team, standing in front of the awesome pro life van!

26.2

My apologies for not updating sooner, no web access until now. Yesterday I completed the marathon in 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 23 seconds. That is a pace of 9:53 per mile. When we began training my goal was 10 minute miles so I came in just under that. My pace at the 10k and 30k mark(9:39p/m) was exactly the same which was surprisingly good.

Praise the Lord for the strength and endurance to run 26 miles! Thinking back on it this morning, I'm amazed that our bodies can handle something like that.

Today I'm a little sore especially my right knee and one my toes. My knee felt great for the first half of the race but as the miles wore on the knee got pretty sore. I'm looking forward to now letting it heal properly! My toe is nasty. I think the whole toenail is about to fall off and the whole upper part of the toe is black and blue. Beyond that my body feels pretty good this morning considering what I did yesterday =)

Throughout the race my lungs/cardio felt great. I was never winded or felt my heart racing. My legs were tired around mile 20 but got a good jolt from the crowd around mile 21. Speaking of the spectators, I was amazed at the number of people cheering. It was really incredible. Crowds lined the streets for much of the race cheering and giving high 5's. And they are looking for something/someone to cheer for so I had fun with that a couple of times. My running partner, Chad, and I sometimes waved our arms up and down to get them going! It gave us energy. So kudos to all you spectators out there!

I have some pictures and videos to post later today when I get back home.

A big thank you to all who prayed for me this past week/weekend. My cold was totally gone, and I was able to run the whole thing. I only walked for about 10 seconds through one of the last water stops. Praise the Lord!

Its Marathon Time!

Well its almost here. The marathon is just 11 short hours away. After a busy day of picking up our race packet, wandering through the race expo, and driving through a bunch of Chicago I'm ready to get a full nights sleep.

Throughout the last 7 months of training, numerous people have asked me why I'm running the Chicago marathon. I was reminded tonight of how grateful we should be that we have the ability to run, walk, and breath. I hope by running to bring glory to God. I hope by running to support pro life. This is really our teams mission...that is to support the gift of life.

I would go on but brievity rules the night.

Up in the morning at 4:45am.

P.S. pictures to come hopefully tomorrow.

Arrived in Chicago

Well I've arrived in Chicago. The two people I sat next to on the plane from Denver were both running the marathon; in fact I think about half of the people on the flight were running =)

I met up with some of the other people on our running team in Denver and just met a few more here at the hotel. I think there are 12 of us in total. We are getting ready to go grab a bite to eat and then to bed. More to come tomorrow!

Its Chicago Time!

T-3 days! I leave for Chicago tomorrow early afternoon and the marathon is on Sunday morning 7am MST. So as your are headed to church remember me in your prayers.

I hope to post some updates on this blog throughout the course of the weekend so check back often.

As I often tell myself on the long runs: "Run for fun, Run for Him"

Wow...

As I'm just 10 short days away from the Chicago Marathon, I'm not sure if this story is encouraging or discouraging; yet is certainly is amazing!

"Imagine running a mile in four minutes, 43 seconds. Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia just ran 26.2 of them to shatter his own marathon record on September 28. He completed the distance in 2:03:59 at the Berlin Marathon. Talk about incredible!"

Marathon Update 9/9/08

After some painful runs over the past couple of weeks I'm starting to feel better. I've been battling some intense IT band soreness, which is the muscle between your quad and hamstring. As I'm beginning to learn runners often deal IT band issues. I just got a new pair of shoes this week and they have made a world of difference. Additionally my chiropractor has stretched it out a couple of times which really makes my entire leg feel better.

After this evening's 6-miler, my right knee is the only thing that is sore. Praise the Lord! Hopefully, I'll get totally back on track this week and be able to run all the miles on my training schedule.

Less than 5 weeks till Chicago!

"Run for fun, Run for life, Run for Him"

Chicago Marathon

For those of you who don't know I'm training to run the Chicago Marathon coming up October 12th. I have just completed my 22nd week of training with 8 weeks to go. A normal week consists of 4 runs: two short(er) runs, one medium run, and a long run. Today I ran 15 miles which is the farthest I've run up to this point. Never having run a marathon before or even really being a runner has made the last couple of months a new experience. As the marathon draws closer, I hope to share some of these experiences with you via video blog updates!

"And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" -Heb 12:1b

Running in the rain

So this morning my buddy Chad and I ran 15 miles...in the rain. We were both drenched to the core but it really wasn't all that bad. Here are a couple of videos!