4/16 and Triathlon, Part II

Hokies Memorial Marathon (2007 Marine Corps Marathon)

This is the second of a two part series in which I will discuss my experience on April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech, and its influence on me. Part I discussed the shooting.

The couple of weeks or so after the shooting were not very productive in Blacksburg to say the least. Though class resumed the week after, there wasn't a lot of work given and most exams were canceled or optional. I remember playing a lot of golf with friends Billy, Cory, and FJ those first couple weeks, between visiting with friends and family who had come in to town. I was a terrible golfer, but it was relaxing getting away from Blacksburg and relaxing during those first hectic days.

In early May, during exams, I was talking to a runner friend, Liz, who told me how some people she knew were organizing a run called the Hokies Memorial Marathon, and they had 100 spots for people to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October 2007, and each person would raise $1000 to meet the minimum of $100,000 required by the Virginia Tech Foundation to endow a scholarship. I immediately contacted one of the organizers and expressed my interest. In fact, four of us from Dr. Librescu's class had all heard about it separately and signed up.

Now, it wasn't like I was coming straight off the couch into marathon training, but I certainly wasn't an endurance runner. The previous summer I had gone on a couple of longer runs with a friend, and had competed in a couple of local 5k's, but my longest run was still under 10 miles, and I'd only done that once.

A marathon was one of those things that you always say "Yea, I'd like to do that someday." Well, after my experience, it was blatantly clear that "someday" was now. In Lance Armstrong's first book, Its Not About The Bike, he talks about how a cancer survivor wrote to him shortly after being diagnosed saying "we're the lucky ones," and that he did not initially understand what that meant. I do.

Through the group I got my hands on a 20-week marathon training plan and set out. I spent that summer working at a naval base at home in King George, VA, and did most of the early runs in my neighborhood. I would run a six-mile loop two or three times a week, and swim other days as cross-training. Weekends were for long runs, and I jumped right up to about 14 miles to start with. A local coach, James DeMarco, was volunteering for the group and put together our workout schedule and provided support during the long runs, which I would drove back to Blacksburg for several weekends that summer. Training continued like this into the Fall semester.

Meanwhile, I reached out to everyone I knew to do the fundraising. A reporter at the King George Journal, my hometown paper, was more than willing to help out and published a couple of articles talking about my training and fundraising. People from all over the county and my naval base donated money, but by far the largest pool of donors were alumni of my fraternity, Pike (Pi Kappa Alpha, VT Pikes). I was able to get a message out on our alumni listserv, and a good friend, Tom Tillar, helped me contact numerous other alumni of Pike from the 70s and 80s and members The Cotillion Club (became Pike at VT in 1970). Through this support, I was able to raise just over $14,000, and our group as a whole raised over $140,000, far exceeding our goal. To everyone reading this who helped or contributed, thank you so much for your support. In writing this, I went back to the spreadsheet I had kept of donations and it brought tears to my eyes.

The last six weeks or so before the marathon I started having IT-band problems and had to significantly cut back my running miles and increased cross-training. The marathon was an incredible experience, and I was relatively happy with my time, 4:00:02, given my injury.

The very next weekend, back in Blacksburg, I stopped by the Pike house late Saturday evening where we were hosting a Halloween party. I had been at another formal event earlier and went by to say hello to some folks I hadn't seen since the marathon. In the downstairs hallway, I ran into Doran Bosso, and Brian Schoenberger, both of whom had been doing triathlons for a couple of years, nothing longer than sprint and olympic distance (1 - 2.5 hour races). I was telling them about the marathon, and Doran comes out with "I think I'm going to sign up for Ironman Florida tomorrow." Not to be shown up, Brian agrees, "if you do it, I'll do it."

(Note: An Ironman is a triathlon involving a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.)

I ponder this a moment: I've just run a marathon, and I've been a swimmer my entire life, I'd have one year to learn to ride a bike. I trained for the marathon while keeping up with school work and everything else. There was no reason to hesitate. "If you guys do it, I'll do it."

From Blacksburg, thanks for reading.