Here we go...

It's almost time to run across Eastern Kansas. I'm excited and already feeling my usual pre-race restlessness. No matter what happens, I want to say thanks in advance to everyone involved in this adventure. There are some fantastic people at VA Eastern Kansas and without their encouragement, support, pacing, and involvement, things like this can't happen.

Semper Fidelis & I'll see you in Leavenworth!

CFC C2C (campus to campus) 100k Ultra run

I have the proud distinction of serving this year as the CFC coordinator for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System. The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is a government-authorized form of solicitation to employees in the federal workplace on behalf of charitable organizations. It’s been around since 1961 and since that time, Federal Employees have donated over $7 billion through the CFC to a list of federated and independent charities on the local, national, and international level. There are literally thousands of charities who take part in (and in many cases, depend on) the CFC drive that occurs every fall. Name a charity and there’s a good chance you can donate to it via CFC.
On Wednesday November 6^th, I will run from the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center in Topeka, Ks to the Eisenhower VA Medical Center in Leavenworth Ks., covering 100-kilometers (62 miles) over gravel and dirt country roads, urban trails, levee trails, and even a couple of miles of pavement. 

A few other runners from VA Eastern Kansas will shuttle out to join me for different sections of the route. We’ll have a support vehicle loaded up with ultra-running goodies and ready to serve as both a safety vehicle and a rolling aid station. Updates on our progress as I move across Eastern Kansas will be placed on the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System's face book site.  

Why am I doing this? (I’m sure I’ll ask myself that question more than once on Wednesday). The idea spawned from some early CFC planning meetings and some gentle “prodding” from those who know of my other life as an Ultra runner. During the current climate of Government shutdowns, furloughs, and uncertainty, the “buzz” has been that CFC could experience a tough year when the reality is that charities may need help now more than ever. If I can use my ability to run all day to help “make up some ground”, I feel compelled do so.   Times may be tough, but the need remains.  So I’m running for CFC awareness and promotion, I’m running for my chosen charity, and if you're a federal employee eligible to give to the CFC, I’d like to run for your charity too!

 

Forgotten Blogs & Broken Treadmills:

Wow, I still have an ultra-running blog. I’m surprised blogger hasn’t yanked it yet as part of some cleaning-up of non-active sites. Apparently, you can also still find it on trailrunningsoul.com.  Of course, for any new content since February, you’ll need to look at milk cartons or amber alerts on the side of the highway. So, what happened?  I’d love to have some really cool excuse like I’ve been in the Himalaya climbing Annapurna or training to become a Ninja, or off diving wrecked pirate ships in the Bermuda triangle. But the truth is, since the Winter Psycho Wyco race, my trail running success has been a little hit & miss and the impulse to write has been miss. So here’s a quick run-down…. DNF at Free State, got really, really sick, wife and I had a baby (Tristyn Riley Mooney!), DNS’ed a race in May, got a new job, moved to a new town, bought a house, had a training injury, somehow PR’d at the Psummer Psycho 50k, got really, really sick again, decided not to run the Hawk 50, DNS’ed another race, finally got healthy and here I am.

 

I spent most of the summer fighting a mystery illness. Ultimately I think there was a good chance it was overtraining. I just felt profoundly tired all the time. I can’t say with 100% certainty that it was overtraining since I was in a stressful new job and had a colic baby at home but I was sure hittin' all the symptoms of over training.  I also had a couple weeks of flu-like symptoms. Anyway, when I decided not to run in the Hawk 100/50 miler because “I just didn’t feel like it”, I realized it was time to see the Doctor.

 

Fortunately, my doc “gets’ Ultra runners. This is good. How do you think most Doctors respond when you present with “…I’m a half hour slower on my 25 mile runs and I feel tired”?  My Doctor is a little more understanding. He recognized a change in baseline and decided to be thorough. EKG, lung x-ray, and blood tests for…pretty much everything. We ruled out cancer, aids, Ebola, sinuse infection, Lyme disease, lung disease, allergies, asthma, and really everything else. The EKG showed signs of a slightly enlarged heart but this is normal for endurance athletes. However, given family history, he decided to put me through a stress test. We learned three things from the stress test. First, it takes ultra marathoners a long time on the treadmill to have our heart rate approach the “threshold” needed for the test. Second, gyms must have the 30 minute time limit on treadmills because apparently this is when they break and a nurse has to call IT and the IT guy gets mad because “….he was on there for how long at what incline?!?, and the nurse and cardiologist get happy because they’ve been trying to get a new treadmill for years but the administrator won’t order one and “…now he has no choice”. Third, my heart is fine.

 

Overtraining and stress. That was my diagnosis (though I’m not a Doctor). So, I did what every runner does…I ran through it. Well, sort of. I did back off on mileage and sat out a couple of races I normally run. Eventually, I came out of it and I’m running strong and feeling like myself again. Over the last month I’ve gotten my running volume back up to normal.

 

So I’m back. In fact in two days I’ll be running a 100k and I hope to have a run report done this weekend. Please blogger, don’t delete my site and stress me out, I promise to add new content semi-regularly.