Ken's Road to Kona

I don’t do easy…that would be too boring. I just always bite more than I can chew at times. I think I might have gotten myseld too far this time. I think I’ll request ”My Way” by Frank Sinatra to be sung at my funeral, but that would be way too cliche.

I was looking  for a winter Marathon to race to work on my running, and keep the momentum going in the colder months. So I went online to investigate:

Google Search: Winter Marathons

There were some marathons far and near that I thought would be good to check out the cities such as Austin, TX on Valentines Day, Melbourne,FL which is where I finished high school, Vegas, and even in my beloved hometown of Jacksonville., FL. These would have been fun, and I might have taken a few days off just to do some sightseeing. Nope, too easy.

I was contacted by a Canadian friend of mine who I use to work with in Japan and he told me about a race in California. “Great! California! Hell yea! Where? L.A.? San Diego? No…Death Valley; A marathon trail run, through Death Valley on Feb 6th. Highlights include running through the lowest point in the United States, which will be 220 below sea level;  running in desert through mountain passes, gravel, and more. I’ve never done a trail race, and I’ve never run a marathon with fresh legs…only after biking 100+ miles.

I can’t believe he talked me into doing this…took him all about 10 mintues to convience me.

I’m that easy I suppose. I guess this will be something. I have some other small 1/2 marathons and shorter races before Xmas that will prepare me. To be honest, I’m more worried about this than an actual Ironman. Should be interesting. Start the Countdown timer!!!

Overhead view of Trail

Another shot of the marathon trail

I'm a little intimidated...