When I look back at these last few weeks, it seems like a blur.  Things moved so fast from the end of August to where we’re at right now.  September 7th it is already as I type this and it was already four days ago since we crossed the finish line in Marquette, Michigan during the 10th Freedom Run of 2011.  This will not be the last, though. 
Coming off the emotional, nerve racking and memorable experience of running during a soldier’s funeral just thirty miles away from where I live, it was hard to get back into the right mind set to finish off the next week which would be a short one for me.  Well, for some, you may think this is a longer week when you hear the next part…
Keeping work, training, packing and planning straight was a task last week.  To plan a trip to a place I’d never been, I wanted to make sure it went smooth.  It seemed to be just that and ended up better than I expected. 
On Thursday morning I woke up around 7:00am.  From that point on, I would stay up until 10:00am the next morning (Friday).  Fortunately my dad was a math teacher.  He taught me that there was twenty-four hours in a day.  Seven days in a week, then tricked me and told me there were 365 days in a year.  That’s not always true, sometimes February decides to add one extra day because it always gets the shaft of having only twenty-eight days.  That’s beyond the point and I didn’t have to tell you any of that.  But I just did, incase you were wondering. 
Add three to twenty-four and you get….twenty-seven!  That’s how many hours I made it before getting a nap.  I know my limit when it comes to training too hard, I know my limit when it comes to eating too much and I also know my limit when it comes to not enough sleep.  If I was drained to the point I wouldn’t be able to make the trip on limited sleep, I would have pulled over and taken a nap.  My body did not need that until I got to Michigan.  It did feel good to get that nap though once I laid down. 
I met a couple of my host family members in Marquette when I rolled into town.  Crystal, who I had met at the Cellcom Half Marathon in Green Bay back in May of 2010 and the girl who invited me to this run in Michigan, along with her mom came to greet me.  I hadn’t seen Crystal since that run we ran together for the majority of the race in Green Bay, but had stayed in touch through email and Facebook for the past year.  This was the first time meeting her mom as well who would be running with us the next morning. 
Heading down to Rock, MI where the Hadel’s lived, and where I’d be staying, I was ready to sleep.  Crystal kept me awake telling me all I wanted to know about Michigan and more.  She knew every single person who lived at each house we went by in Rock and what they did, who their kids were, what kind of food they liked, their birthdays, how tall they were, what kind of college degree they had…okay, maybe not quite that in depth, but she did teach me a lot. 
Prior to coming out to Michigan I had been in touch with the race director, Nancy Bailey & also her public relations person, Stephanie Zadroga-Langlois.  True story: When I got to the expo Friday night with the Hadels, I asked for Stephanie…they told me there was two and asked which one…I had to explain, “The one with the weird last name, starts with a Z…no idea how you pronounce it.”  The lady told me I was funny, although I was serious.  Go ahead, try and pronounce that, I still don’t know how!
Steph set up a TV interview for when I was there to tell my story.  TV6 was the channel that was on location to do a live spot from the expo.  Pretty cool!  Not only was it my first trip to Michigan, but it was my first live TV interview I’ve ever done…and I forgot my make up!  I told the reporter that before we went on when we were by their truck and she said, “I’ve got some in the truck if you need any.”  I knew I was in radio for a reason, and that helped clarify that point right there.  That went very well though, we did a recorded interview first that they used for their news hour that night and then the live spot around 7:05pm from the commons building where the expo and kids run was held.  It was a great night for it too! 
After we got our packet, did the interview and got the route information, I hopped in with JoEllen (Crystal’s mom) to take a little tour of the route and some of the town.  I was thoroughly impressed.  During this time of year, especially in the next few weeks, Marquette is an unbelievable town to be in.  The parks, trails, located right on Lake Superior which we got to run by as well…and so much more, this place was awesome!  We walked out to the beach for a bit to just take it in.  I took some pictures that night out there to have for remembrance of the trip.   I could have just sat there for hours, relaxing in the sand.  Great place to be the night before a run!
We went back, JoEllen cooked us all spaghetti for a late dinner before watching the TV6 newscast then heading to bed for an early rise. 
It was raining on our trip out of Rock that next morning, but cleared up quick before we got to Marquette.  Nancy had asked me if I’d be the flag “fixture” for both races that morning.  I agreed to do that for them.  Right before the marathon started at 7:30am, she had announced for all runners to turn and face me, while she explained why I was there with the flag and that I’d be running with it during the half marathon.  Same went for the half marathon participants, which started at 8am.  It worked out well and explained to the runners what I was doing and why, so there were less questions during the race, before it or after it was all complete.  Nancy also told me I could start out in front with my two teammates, Crystal and JoEllen.  They were my color guard, one on each side of me at the front of the race.  I told the guys in front not to trample us too bad.  One guy didn’t even say anything back and obviously didn’t realize I was trying to make light of things before the race.  A couple others just smiled and said they’d try not to.  These guys were competitive; I understand that, so they were focused on what they needed to do. 
We got going onto the course that was so fun to run on.  From roads to sidewalks, trails to paved bike ways, it was scenic and enjoyable.  Plus the weather was just right!  58 degrees when we started and over cast so the sun wasn’t beating down on us. 
Once we got on to the trail setting, I stepped on a bigger sharp rock.  Not the town I stayed in, Rock, but pretty close.  Wow, did that hurt.  Now those who have always told me “See, I told you you shouldn’t be wearing those stupid things you call shoes!”  Get over it, my foot bruised a little bit, but it’s back to normal already.  It was by Monday, in fact.  If there’s not pain when you run, what fun is that?? 
I met a lot of cool people during this run.  Most were from Michigan of course, one from Lansing, a couple from Detroit, some from Marquette and the surrounding area and also met a couple from Wisconsin.  There were runners from Minnesota, but I never had the chance to latch on with them.  I did cheer them to the finish whenever I heard my home state mentioned as they came through. 
The thing that really impressed me about the run was the number of volunteers present.  Not only were there a lot…but they did such a nice job of keeping us protected from traffic, making sure we had water and that other stuff called Heed, which had an interesting taste to it but did the job, I felt anyway…and just cheering us on.  There were spectators at certain points throughout the race, one in particular I remember well.  A guy, probably in his 60’s, I saw on the route at least seven times.  That’s basically every other mile.  He either liked that I was running with the flag, or I had a stalker, I couldn’t quite figure it out.  But he was awesome, he was yelling and ringing a cow bell every time we came by.   He chanted “U S A!  U S A!” one time and another he saluted.  One of the last times I saw him he just yelled constantly, “YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!!!  WOOOOOO!!”  I couldn’t help by laugh, it was just great.
Around mile ten, a guy came past me, looked back and said, “That looks like it hurts…”  I thought he meant carrying the flag, like a lot of people think it does, but he was looking at my chest.  I hadn’t noticed or felt the other first I encountered during this run.  Sometimes if you don’t have cover for them or a certain style shirt, you’ll get bloody nipples.  It sounds terrible, and funny at the same time (to me anyway), and it looked funny as well.  I looked down quick, looked back up at him and said, “Oh no, that’s just kool-aid, I had some at one of the water stops and splashed what was left on my chest…both sides to keep it even.”  I had never seen such a confused on a runner’s face before until that moment.  He didn’t even say anything, just turned around and kept running. 
In the last two miles, that’s when I had the Detroit girls come up and latch on with me for a while.  They were giving me crap because I was walking at a water stop for a bit.  They were yelling orders to me as if I was in the military to get going and to quit crying and start running.  They were cool, we had a good laugh or two for the time we ran together, then I beat them to the finish. 
At the finish, walking around and seeing other runners rehydrating, getting food and visiting with each other, I made my way through the crowd to do the same thing.  On my way through the crowd I had probably the most ironic thing happen.  I’d have to say it was the coolest thing that happened throughout that race as well.  A man came up to me with tears in his eyes, shook my hand and told me thank you for what you’re doing, it means so much to me.  He went on to tell me that he heard that I ran the week before for Sgt Matt Harmon of Lengby, MN during his funeral service, from the school where it was held, to the cemetery where he was buried.  Escorted by three vehicles (my parents in the trail car, my friend Kyle in my ride decked out with flags and decals, and my brother in the Freedom Jeep leading us down Highway 2).   This man thought I was there to run for the soldier from Grand Rapids, Michigan who was killed with Harmon on August 14th in Afghanistan.  He knew that soldier personally.  When I told him that I didn’t even know Matt or his family, he couldn’t even talk.  His eyes got so watery I couldn’t see his eyes clear anymore.  He was trying to hold it back I could tell, until I mentioned to him it’s alright to let it out, I understand how you’re feeling.  At that point he just gave me a hug, tried to talk but no words came out that I could understand.  He patted me on the back a few times, nodded his head and shook my hand one more time, then walked away.  Regardless of who he was, where he was from or who he knew…I knew at that point, we had left an impact on at least one person.  Especially on this guy…a big impact.   That’s exactly why I do what I do.  Thank you sir, for expressing your emotion and appreciation towards your friend to me.  It also made a huge impact on me, personally. 
After we got our pictures done, got some food, water and chocolate milk of course…it was back to the home front to shower and relax.  I also got a nice nap in that afternoon, oh boy that felt good! 
I came back to Marquette that night to attend the awards and what I like to call the “free for all”.  Food and drink for the runners that were in attendance put on by the Waterfront Restaurant.  What a great place! 
I stayed out at the camper in a peaceful setting that night with the Hadels and some of their relatives before departing for Minnesota the next morning. 
I have to throw out a big thanks to the Hadel family for taking me in for a couple days while I was in Michigan.  Thanks to Crystal for the invite to come out and take part in this run at Marquette!  To Hank, JoEllen and Jason as well for their hospitality. 
Thanks to Natalie with TV6 and her camera guy for the publicity during the run.  They made it easy for a little Minnesota boy who forgot his make up to do this interview thing in front of a camera.  Natalie made up for my not so good looks on TV, so it was all good!
And finally to everyone involved with the Marquette Marathon event.  You guys are doing an excellent job with this!  Keep it up and the numbers will continue to grow!  Nancy & Steph (with the weird last name) thank you so much for your help in making this a great experience for me!  Ringside Fitness of Marquette comped my entry along with my teammates and Steph did a very nice job of making it easy through communication to keep me informed of where I need to be, when I needed to be there for this TV stuff. 
I look forward to keeping up with the Marquette Marathon in the future and will be back someday, if not to run, definitely to visit!!

Next up: It’s time to bring some Minnesota nice to Massachusetts!  September 24th for the 11th and final Freedom Run of 2011!!  See you in Salem, Massachusetts!!