19. May 2008 by admin.

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

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7. May 2008 by admin.

Hey whats up guys? Coming up on May 17th I will be running 100 miles around the Poway High School Track Located at 15500 Espola Rd. Poway CA 92064. I will be running from 3 in the morning on Saturday until 1 in the morning on Sunday. I will have NBC 7/39 covering me throughout the day. I am looking for people to pledge .25 cents to .50 cents per lap that I am running (It comes up to about 100 dollars total) but hey I am running 100 miles in one day! Thats not something that occurs too often right? Thanks again for keeping up with me guys I would love to see some of you out there, as I will need the support.

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10. March 2008 by admin.

Hey guys giving you the Lo-down on March 3rd-9th! So on march 1st of course was my 100 miler and then next day I had work..that was fun I limped around dying and moaning for a couple of hours then got to go home and get some well deserved sleep. Then on Monday, I was feeling great ready to get back into my running routine already but didnt want to try yet at my mom’s request and advice. So then on Tuesday I decided to get together with Tomas my mentor and we went on an easy 5-6 miler around Iron Mountain area. Beatiful San Diego weather lately I might add. We were talking about the newest biggest athletes who were winning the Ironmans these days and we also discussed a training plan to get faster and beat the 3 hour marathon. So with beating a 3 hour marathon on my mind I decided to try and beat the hour and half for the half marathon the next day. So after I got out of lunch during sixth period I went down to the track and ran 53 consecutive laps around the track (most boring run of my life…except for that time on the treadmill…) and I finished 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 27 minutes averaging around 6:45 per mile. The rest of the week, I spent really just recovering and working out (trying to get some more muscle mass to burn on the longer runs..). Then friday came around and I felt like beating myself up so, I did three 5:30 repeat miles my splits were 5:27, 5:29 and 5:33 that crap hurt more than the 100 mile run. Then this weekend I took it easy and just did some biking and swimming switching up the work outs and getting ready to continue the routine for the next week. Well thanks for keeping up and please make a donation today! See you on the road!
-Nick Hollon

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3. March 2008 by admin.

Hey guys just giving you the simple lo-down on my first 100 miler that I did on Saturday 03-01-08. I started off at 3:30 in the morning on saturday ran a 31 mile leg and then took a 30 minute break. Leg 2 was 27 miles and generally easy still at this point only one small wall that was easy to overcome. It had been really easy at this point because a 10:15-11:00 mile pace is like candy to me and just enjoyable. Finally some pain was felt throughout leg 3 which was 24 miles, pounding feet, and some sore muscles but wow do salt pills help out more than ever! All the pain during this leg was very easily manageable and I was on an endorphin high I think for most of this leg so that was pleasant
Finally the leg where I actually felt like holy crap this is tough was leg 4. Again another 24 mile leg starting off at 9:15 at night and ending at 1:45 the next morning. You guys had told me that twilight running was the most difficult and most challenging however, I found it to be the most relieving, cooling part of the run, but previous runs I have done I had ran through night many times before so it wasnt anything new. Anyway the pain, mile 86 haha it was crazy usual physical pain you know wobbling sore knees, muscles that are sore as death, feet that have become one solid callous and so on. The pain I am talking about though was nothing like what I had felt before… It was all in the head all mental.. it was a mental wall. My mom was riding with me on this leg and trying to keep conversation with me so I wouldnt drift away she was asking me things like Nick, “what do you want to do in the future?”, “what is 3+18?” “what is your favorite color?” really stupid simple questions I thought with one part of my brain and I was asking myself “why is she asking me these stupid questions?” However no matter how much I tried I couldnt come up with an answer for my favorite color, or the math question or my future I couldnt remember it was strange and almost scary whatever part of my brain holds memories I guess had fallen asleep already or shutdown…that lasted mile 89 where I took a break at a gas station and ate several candy bars and a Starbucks double shot and then beat the crap out of the last miles hyped on caffeine and sugar…and that was the worst of it, that mental wall. I got back to my car at 1:45am 3-02-08 and was done.. that was it I had run 100 miles in 22 hours and 15 minutes setting myself my new distance PR. It was so much easier than I thought it would be, I have ran marathons that were harder, but none the less I am doing nothing but chilling and recovering this next couple fo days.. So nextly I’ll enter in an official trail run 100 and try my luck there. Cool well thanks for the advice guys and hopefully our paths will cross soon in future races! -Nick Hollon (P.S. any good 100 milers out here in San Diego besides the San Diego endurance 100 later in June?) I will also have pics for this up and hopefully funny captions following them. (If I dont get the pics up they can be viewed on www.myspace.com/3000forthecure just click view pics and then ya read the captions their hilarious)

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3. March 2008 by admin.

So ya judging by the title, you have guessed.. I have ran a 100 mile run. This is true, and this is how it came about. I was talking with Joe Decker and he said next weekend he wanted to do a 100 mile run on Saturday if he could get things worked out. So I asked my mom, and she was like “sure if Joe is doing it, he is a good guy and highly professional”. So I was like sweet! I am totally running a 100 miler this weekend. So I prepared the week accordingly. I ran four miles on monday and that was it, for the whole week of running. Then the rest of the week I worked like hell on my abs, lower back, upper back just trying to build a really strong core before attempting this run. I also worked out a ton on my leg muscles doing upwards of 600+ lunges of doom over the week (stupid lunges..they make your butt hurt..) So then ya anyway with the run, Joe e-mailed me again early in the week saying that he couldnt do it this weekend and that instead he was going to run a 50 miler on thursday starting off at 7:00 at night and running until 7:00 the next morning in the Cuyamaca Mountains. I thought, “damn thats uhm crazy and kinda weird..” (He was running at night because its the most challenging part of a run to get through apparently.) So I asked my mom if I could join him on that, She said no because I had school on friday. So I was like ok, uhm can I run to long beach? (which is 100 miles away from San Diego) She said ya, only if I have a crew of min. two people with me the whole time and I have to have the thing completly planned out to the point where mile by mile I know my calorie intake and loss. So I agreed. Then friday rolled around and my friends that were going to crew for me, flaked out on me! (it happens all the time though..) So I was talking with my friends Phil and  Sean in Civics and was like alright so would you guys be able to join me if I kept the run local and just did four different marathons in four different directions? Then they agreed that, they would be able to crew for me if I did that. So I spent the rest of the day re-routing and preparing a run stationed in Canyonside Park and going North, South, East and West for 100 miles. So that was how this run came about last minute…and this is its story…..

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3. March 2008 by admin.

So I got back from my trip to Saleen Valley with my Uncle on Monday. It was a relief to be back and run in normal conditions where I was not being barraged by small sand pellets of death. I got back though, only to find that this whole next week it was going to be pouring rain in San Diego! A great thing for San Diego (because we need to water) a bad thing for running because that meant the “TREADMILL”, and I hate treadmills…. So this week my running goal was 80 miles regardless of weather conditions. So on Tuesday I did an easy out and back twenty throughout Scripps Ranch and into Mira Mesa. Then on wednesday I followed that up with a nice run down at mission bay area with my mom. Lately I had been stuck on running fast. It wasnt my choice, as of late I had been running 7:30 miles everywhere I went and however long I went. It was nice, because left and right I was setting myself new speed-distance records. So the pinnacle of the week was definetly on Friday  though when I ran a marathon in break record time! I started off doing a dreaded 6 miles on the treadmill at the gym at a 7:30 pace. As I said, I got to mile six and then I didnt care how much it was raining, I wanted the hell out off of that treadmill. So then I proceeded from Frogs down Pomerado towards espola (going north) and then did a gigantic poway loop, completing espola to twin peaks, twin peaks to midland, midland to poway, poway to the end of GR, then GR to poway, poway to Sabre Springs Parkway and back through some more streets into my house. I however completed that marathon in 3:17, three hours and seventeen minutes. That was a new record for myself and gave me complete confidence that if I wanted to attempt to break a three hour marathon this year that I fully well had the ability too. Well that was this week, hope you guys are all doing well. See you on the road!

-Nick

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3. March 2008 by admin.

So this will be the week of 20th of January through the 26th of January that we will be reviewing. Major accomplishments this week have definetly been the Calico trail run that I completed on Sunday, crazy ,crazy race. The race first of all was all the way out by barstowe in the desert ghost town of Calico. Race time was at strictly 7:00 so it was one of those 5:30 morning’s for me and my lovely family that accompanied me. So anyway’s ya, the race was called a “trail run” entering the race I thought nothing of it. I had done cross country for three years and those were all trail runs..So whats the big deal about another trail run? The fact thats its 32 miles long with hills that steeper than 45 degrees on mile 30 was the big deal…It was great though, a great experience I kept it a generally easy pace, walking all the hills like you would in an Ultra-marathon, taking mile by mile as it came by. They had several rest points but most of which were way too windy to stop and actually rest on so that sucked. When all was said and done with the race I sprinted through town, on the downhill finish and came in at a time of 5 hours and 17 minutes, I was somewhat dissapointed with the time (having aimed for under 5 hours) but I had completly forgotten that it was a trail run when I set that goal. So I did come in second place though for my age group and have a cool little plaque with some weird crystal on it know, its nice! Everything else that week was really just recovery from that run, and on Friday I received a huge donation from a women who works in the district office and was very pleased. Well I hope everything is well with all of you and if you havent already please make a donation today!

-Nick

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19. January 2008 by admin.

Hey guys whats up? this week isnt quite over yet but I’ll put up another post on sunday probably after my official 50k (32 miles) race in Calico ghost town this sunday. So this week was final week at school and I have been resting/recovering from my 60 miler to get ready for my 32 miler this weekend (I am going to try to win or place in my age group). Anywho, this week I want to thank Pat Kumpan from the poway chieftan for helping me out so much and getting me an article in the poway newspaper! Awesome! and also I want to thank all of those of you out there who have donated or are going to! You’re awesome and your donations help me out a ton thank you! So on monday I got too see and hang out with Bundy for the first time in like forever it was cool, he seems like he is doing well, finally growing some facial hair back on like he used to be. I owe him a trip to the NCT downtown sometime soon also so me and him will probably go. But it is great to have him back around in poway and safe at home.

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1. January 2008 by admin.

Hey guys hope you all had a great new years! I finally managed to get over my flu it had been lingering around for the past couple of days and really took a number on my routine. I’ve found out that the easy portion of my project is definetly the running… I am incredibly at a loss for knowledge of how and where to advertise and promote my cause. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be I guess. However, I am trying to get myself to advertise more and reach out, so that when I am ready to do that 50 miler on January 12th I can get some sort of publicity and more donations. Running wise, due to my sickness I had been out for two weeks but still managed to total 245  miles out of the normal 300 for the month of december. (I am happy with it considering the weather and vulnerability to sickness during this season). I am now at the point where I recover from marathons within 3-4 hours after running them. Which is nice for catching up on those lost miles. I am however starting to get a little big in the head and considering attempting (just for fun) to run 75 miles this thursday. I figure if I eat right and treat my body well the next couple of days I might be alright to do it. Well, thats it for this week I am well and back into running to the extreme. Hope you all have a great beginning to this fabulous new year! and please if you can donate today!

-Nick

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17. December 2007 by admin.

Hi again everybody, hope you are all doing well this christmas season and avoiding getting sick, I know I am not it seems to be impossible to go outside and run but avoid getting sick at the same time… However this past week 12/10/07-12/15/07 still kicked ass! So here’s the re-cap- Monday I didnt run because I felt way too sick. Tuesday I ran (dumbly) firstly I did 13 miles from my high school to RB high around to the 15 freeway and back, that was a good run. Then I went home that night and my mom pissed me off. So I went running again and managed to cover another 17 miles (at night…really dumb idea probably what got me sick again..). However, so on tuesday I managed to cover 30 miles. Wednesday-thursday I didnt touch my running shoes nor dare to I was getting all flemmy and such. Friday I went running the Cross Country team for four miles which was nice and easy for me, short distances like that I will tell you are relieving.. Then Saturday, haha well I could tell you what happened Saturday except this is my running blog, it pretty much involved me and my friend stuck out in the Desert by Ocotilla Wells for 6 hours laughing at words like “potato” for 30 minutes at a time. Anyway back to running, So Sunday…ya sunday it was pretty much amazing! So we’ll re-cap sunday piece by piece. So on monday during this week I was e-mailed by a guy named Joe Drucker (the leader of the San Diego Ultra-runners group) and he invited me to join him on Sunday at five in the morning with some other runners to go do either a 26 miler, 50k or a 50 miler. I was thinking all the way until loop 3 (which I will explain momentarily) sure ya I’ll just do the 26 miler with them. So I show up on Sunday morning at Penasquitos Canyon (on the west side closest to the beach) and i firstly meet a guy named Toby a really cool guy who seemed like he knew what he was talking about when it came to ultra-running. Then slowly everybody else from the Ultra-running group shuffled in and I greeted them. They were each amazing indviduals and I would describe them in Detail however this blog might end up taking like an hour to read in that case. Joe Drucker (crazy, inspirational guy), Nicole (Joe’s wife and ultra-runner extroidinare), Meg (mother of 3 and an amazing runner), Toby (adventure runner/ aspiring ultra-runer) and then me (17 years old and wearing my mothers running pants..) So the five of us started out in the dark at 5 in the morning, into Penasquitos canyon and we did a 13 mile loop, running at Ultra-mode (you walk all the hills) and running at a 9-10 minute mile (much more preferrable when running a 50 mile run). So for me that first loop was nothing. We returned took a brief 20 minute break and were joined by some more people of the group at 8:00am then we proceeded to run another 13 mile loop in the opposite direction around the canyon. So when we got finished we had completed 26 miles which at the time I was feeling pretty damn good about being able to actually do another loop and make it 39 miles. So I did. Time came around on the run when we hit 35 miles and I was right next to Meg and we gave eachother a high five when had both beaten our previous records of longest distance ran. Then we finally got back to the start rested again for 20 minutes and at that point, some other issues had come up with some of the other runners who were with us, places to go, or health problems that had arisen, and at this point I was still feeling great a little light headed, but food fixed that. So I was like what the hell, why not lets do 52 today, lets make today a day I will forever remember. So me and Toby the only ones left still, were like alright man, lets do this last loop! So we got into it, ran, ran and ran some more. We reached probably mile 45 then we were both starting to hurt a bit but having another person there with you was just so great because we knew we werent going to stop until we reached mile 52 no matter what. So we both pushed through and sprinted like bats out of hell the very last half a mile! To return back to the car to an Ecstatic mom that was waiting for me at the finish at 5:00pm in the afternoon. We had run 12:00 hours straight and completed 52 miles in a single run… at age 17 I am pretty damn proud of myself. So then after my mom took me to an italian place and I gorged myself with pasta, salad and my favorite of course bread! That was one of the best days of my life and I am spending today at home recovering from the run but will be back running and setting new PR’s by tuesday. Thank you for reading! Merry Christmas to all! and please in the spirit of christmas and giving make a donation -Nick

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