An Accidental Ultra-Marathoner

June 2nd didn't go as I had planned, but it turned out a lot better!

It started with the Fontana Half Marathon.

The Fontana Half was awesome! The Fontana half is almost all down hill so it is a great PR course, the only downside is you are not allowed to walk :(. The half starts at 3,300 feet above sea level so you had to take a bus up to the start. There were around 2,000 runners and my age division was 15 and under, so I had a chance to win my age division! My friend Kent took me to the start and I was excited!

Boom! the race had started and we were running down hill, so I knew this is going to be a fast course! As I was running I heard someone yell, “good job we are at mile 3 and we are running a 7:12 pace!” Wow I’ll run out of energy if I keep going this pace. At mile 4 I saw the first person looking for walkers, hopefully he doesn’t find anyone! At mile 6 we were basically down the hill and we were heading towards a gas station when I heard someone say. “he passed me again! its ok when they are older, but when not when they’re his age!” I started thinking about this for a while and laughed to myself.
  

At mile 8 I was starting to pick up my pace since there wasn’t anymore hills to go down. A lady ran by me and said “Wow, you are going to be an elite athlete one day!” Just this thought brought me to mile 13 where I saw my mom and sister and sprinted to the finish! In the end I finished in 1:54:34 and I came in 4th place in my age division! First through third place were all fifteen years old.
  

After the race, we decided to go and help my friend Ed with a 100 he was doing at the Riverside Relay for Life. When we got there I decided that I was going to do 7 miles with Ed so I’ll have 20 miles for the day. Ed was running on a .25 mile grass loop around tents, kids, and a stage.

When I finished the 7 I sat down and my Mom and (Ed’s wife) Martha said “Now you only have 6 miles to go for a marathon!” I knew that they were just teasing me but since I felt great, I got up and did 6.25 more. After that I thought to myself, “if I’m going to do this I might as well run until my mom makes me stop.” I ran another 5 and was feeling no pain except for a slight ache in my legs, but thats normal. Sadly I had to stop and go home to feed my dog Cooper =(. I was surprised I ran so far.

Including the Relay for Life and Fontana, I  ran 31 miles!!! To add on to that I felt great! Running 31 miles was painful at times, but after I finished, I felt very proud of myself. I can’t wait until I get to be an official ultra-marathoner!