Racing for Hope

When I got this idea to run a marathon a month, I knew it would be hard. I really underestimated the mental side of it. Training for this marathon wasn’t the best. Mandy had a procedure during training time and ended up with an infection. Which was another hospital stay and training time lost. This race…

Monday, September 12th, 2022 Mandy is having surgery to remove lymph nodes that are of concern. Walking into the hospital is never easy but for me, it has become easier. Getting checked in and even Mandy leaving me in the waiting room has become just routine. Today was different I was going to get to…

So marathon 8 was not a fun run! If you watched my last recap, you know that Mandy’s cancer is back and I hadn’t trained since I ran the July marathon. I started this run at 5:55 am with my Noxgear safety vest turned to green, because it’s my favorite and most hated color! Why…

Mandy texted me the cancer is back…

It’s been 4 days since I completed the Grandma’s marathon in Duluth, MN. The race wasn’t my fastest, and I really had to get through some things in my head to make it through the last 7.2 miles. Let’s start with the morning of the race. I had a nice 3 am wake-up call. Instead…

Marathon 5 Here we are a few days away from marathon number 6, and I’m just now able to put into words what marathon 5 was to me. We will start with it was hard, so so incredibly hard! It was my second slowest marathon ever at 6 hours 2 minutes and 23 seconds. After…

Alright, so it’s been a week and a half or so since I ran the Silos Waco marathon. It’s been hard to put into words how I felt about the race/experience. I’ll start at the beginning. Our flight to Austin, Tx was uneventful. Our girls love to fly! We then got our rental car and…

Welcome back! So where we left off, I had just done my long run of 10 miles after Mandy got out of the hospital. What I didn’t tell you is I woke up that day with hip and back pain. It has persisted and worsened this entire week, and I haven’t been able to run…

We sit here a little over 3 weeks past marathon #3 and a little less than a month from marathon #4. The podcast I was interviewed for has now been released, and the love and support since have been amazing! Training has been hard recently, and I find myself lacking motivation at times. When it’s…

Race #3 was awesome, and it was followed by 3 days of some incredible rest! On the third day of rest, I was interviewed by the Marathon Training Academy Podcast. They have been a great source of information that has helped me on this journey. Their podcast has helped me in formulating a training plan…

Just a couple days after finishing marathon #2, I was back to running and training for the next race. Five days after race #2, we celebrated my 37th birthday. It was a short celebration because we had to drive 3 hours to the location of race #3. Waking up and preparing for the race in…

So, it has been 2 weeks since marathon #2, and I’ve had some time to reflect on it. I need to be transparent. The couple of weeks leading up to this marathon, I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t want to run. I was feeling like it was a burden and adding stress on Mandy.…

Well after the first marathon, it was back to normal life. Training runs, work, doctor appointments with Mandy, the everyday anxiety and fear that something is going to be wrong the next time we are at the doctor’s, and of course raising our little girls. We headed into February and cholangiocarcinoma awareness month with a…

Well, this was unbelievable! Leading up to the marathon, we shared our story on our neighborhood Facebook page. I shared about the run and why I was doing it. The support we got on Facebook and while running was amazing! I can’t thank all of those that came out or wrote encouraging words on those…

Well, we missed Christmas and have spent a week in the hospital. The whole time I was so frustrated with the nurses and doctors. I felt the entire time no one would do anything for us. I know they are overworked and short-staffed, and it’s not a job that I would ever want. It was…

Alright, let’s get down to business, shall we? After Mandy’s 2 year cancer-versary, we went to Minnesota to see some of her family. While there, we ended up in the emergency room for 10 hours! Mandy had an infection in her drain and bile. She was given antibiotics to help. After we came home, Mandy…

Sorry, it’s been a little bit since I updated you guys on everything but here we are back at it again! So this past Sunday was 18 miles on my training plan, man, was it tough! I got it done in just under 3 hours but one of the reasons it was so difficult was…

This is my first entry. I was hoping to write an entry here and there to give a different perspective, a patient’s perspective.  I was very fortunate to not suffer from anxiety or depression while growing up. I developed some anxiety after my daughter was born, which I figured was normal. It didn’t interfere with…

Week 3 and I am already making big strides in the training! I’m getting faster, which is really cool. Hopefully, the miles on my feet will help with the endurance. We are making big strides on the fundraising as well! $1,767 already raised and the year hasn’t even started! If you are reading this, donated,…

So, we are into week 2 of training! This past weekend, I did a Spartan super race on Saturday. On Sunday, I got to run a Spartan sprint with my incredible fighter wife and my reason for racing for hope. I couldn’t be prouder of Mandy. She absolutely killed the course! Every obstacle she had…

Hello! I don’t really know how to start this, but here we go! If you are reading this, I’m assuming you know why I’m running 12 marathons in 12 months. Well, I just finished the Chicago marathon! It was my second ever marathon. I had the privilege to run it with teamCCF! It was such…