100 mile of Track and Heat

Hi       Today is now May 19th 2008, two days after finishing my 100 mile run around the Track at Poway High School. It was rough it was tough, it was 22 hours long! Wow… where do I start without making this story a year long? So it starts off at 2:30 am in the morning I am driving down Espola and I see Phil walking down to the track. “hey phil… you ready man?”. He Hops in my car and we went down to the junior parking lot and starting blasting some rock music in the morning just to get hyped up for the coming day. Apparently people dont like you blasting music at 2:45 in the morning though. So a cop rolls into parking lot, gets out and says “do you think this is reasonable?” not knowing what he was referring to I said “no, but what were about to do is very unreasonable..” The cop quickly moves his hand closer to his gun (something I said?). Quickly fixing myself, I said, “No, no nothing like that were about to start a 100 mile run that I am doing today around the track at this High School.” A bit taken back, “O very well, wow, well if you could please turn off the music as it is 2:45 in the morning that would be great, good luck! I’ll think of you when I go back to sleep” and he drove off.

     The first leg was 24 miles taking us down into canyonside park in Rancho Penasquitos we had to go this route because the track didnt open until 7:00. My friends Alex Gilbert, Sean Ohmen and Phillip Deason were by my side throughout the morning. When we arrived at the track my Girlfriend Danica Teyssier and her mom Leslie were already there quick at work helping set up some beautiful banners her Dad, Phil had made for me. Then no less than 15 minutes later and some gatorade, I was off starting the second leg. It began with Mr.Fisher, Aaron Wilkes and Alex Gilbert by my side for 2 miles before we took a small break. Aaron and Alex courageously joined me for half a marathon each, an amazing effort for such a blisteringly hot day. Then as the day continued support just seem to come pouring in. NBC had stopped by for an interview and I managed to stop and get a kiss from Danica on local news! Then Pat and Oscars stopped by and dropped off two cartons of breadsticks! yes I thought! As they are my favorite food item in all of San Diego County.

The day got HOT however and it got HARD to run. I hit a wall for about 20 miles the longest wall I had ever experienced, but I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that I had to push through it. And yes finally by 2:00 it had come mile 50! an 11 hour struggle through temperatures upwards of 98 degrees. I was’nt pleased with the time, but then again this wasnt for time, this was Andrew. His family made an appearance and hooked up a live web cam feed so Andrew and I could see each other. Life has been rough on him and by what I saw on the webcam I knew I had to keep fighting for him as this month marks the year anniversary with the Cancer. Hang in there Andrew, I know you can pull through this man! Then with a full baggage of emotion on mind I continued out into vast second half of the run.

Hot, long and fast? Thats how I would describe the second half. I did’nt hit another single wall until mile 99 suprisingly. So much support, so many people by my side helping me out made it so easy for me to just beat down mile by mile. The afternoon was a runners high, on mile 72-75 I ran it in 23 minutes and 30 seconds going about 7:45 per mile..why? I dont know I felt good. Then at around 10:00 o’ clock at night the Track Closed and I took off with Kalo Greenwall, Danica, My mom and My sister NARA to go complete the last 20 miles that I had left in me. Really? Only 20 more I thought? Nice… The run didn’t end too nice however..I was seconds away from passing out at mile 99, not sweating at all, I weighed 3 pounds less than I did going into this leg and could barely walk without having to stop and dry heaving for sec. Luckily Kalo and Danica were there and we walked a mile with them on my left and right side holding me up for the entire time until 100 miles was something in the past.

Overall it was an amazing experience, a huge thank you to all the donators, supporters with your help I managed to raise 4,300 dollars this weekend for the society! 1,000 dollars more than I had raised the previous nine months! I am astounded. Also a big thanks to all of you who ran with me, weighed me, made me eat, sprayed me with water and more without you guys I would’ve probably died. Thanks again to all!

-Nick Hollon (aka Mr.3000)

www.3000forthecure.org

This entry was posted on 19. May 2008 at 19:19 and is filed under Race, the week, Blogroll, Donations, Long Distance running, Leukemia and Lymphoma societies, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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