HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Growing up I never enjoyed running unless it was with a football in hand, a one mile jog seemed like cruel and unusual punishment so needless to say I didn't do much long distance running. After high school I spent some time playing college football, served a two year mission for my church, and married the beautiful Katie Zehnter. Kids followed, three to be exact (and there is one on the way) and I didn't spend as much time in physical activities. My time was filled with family, working, and finishing up school. I ate a lot of junk food during this time and packed on some serious weight then one day in February of 2011 I finally realized how much I had let my health go by the way side so I started running in hopes of loosing some weight. My running started out slowly with just 10 minutes then 15 then 20 and as winter came to a close I could run for an hour with out stopping. As spring hit and I found the wonderful world of trail running. I simply loved running through the trees and racing down rugged mountain trails and challenging myself to see how fast I could run to the top of nearby mountains in other words I was hooked. Once I discovered trail running I started reading on how to become a better runner and I stumbled across trail ultra-marathons where people would race for 31 to 100+ miles on trails, logging roads and cross country. I was amazed that anyone could run that far but just reading about Ultras planted a seed somewhere in me that an Ultra might be something I would like to try. A couple of weeks later at the goodwill I found a book called Ultra-marathon Man for 50 cents and couldn't pass it up. I read the book in a week and was sold that an Ultra was something I really wanted to do. So I started looking for a race to run. I decided to run a 50 miler, 31 miles was just to close to a regular marathon and a 100k or miler didn't seem to be a wise choice for my first Ultra. After looking at many different races I settled on the Pocatello 50 on June 2nd 2012 which is said to be a very challenging course with lots of elevation but I wouldn't have it any other way. On December 19th 2011 I started my training using a 24 week training plan out of a book by Bryon Powell called Relentless Forward Progress. In hopes of documenting this adventure, I stared this blog to record my progress, adventures, thoughts and anything else that relates to the journey of my first Ultra-Marathon.