The Gunny's Post MCM update Nov 2nd

Hey Gang,

Well my fifth consecutive running of the Marine Corps Marathon is done. The run was held on the 31st (Halloween). I want to publicly give Thanks to Bill Rysanek a peer but more importantly a good friend who ran with me side by side the entire way and although I know I would have finished without him he was instrumental in getting us to our finishing time. He is a very strong runner and if I had listened to him before we started we probably would have broken the 4 hour mark.. official finishing time for us was 4:03:55.. finishing a marathon is an accomplishment and I'm happy knowing I did it this year within 6 months of having brain surgery and my recent "complex partial seizure".

Additionally, I want to Thank Brian (friend and mentor) and his wife Emily for their support to "The Gunny's Team" and more importantly a big congrats to Emily for completing her first marathon..,.job well done..and hope to see you out there again.. the pain eventually goes away and hope you now have the marathon bug...

As I mentioned earlier I persuaded Bill that I wanted to shoot for a 3:40 finish and for 20 miles we maintained an 8:24 min per mile pace but after 20 miles I started to feel it and the last 6 were nothing more than just hanging on and finishing..which was never in question.

I ran into GySgt Jeff Cooper, another good friend, who is currently stationed in Okinawa but I guess is attending a school here in DC standing amongst the crowd between 23 and 24 miles,..what is significant about this encounter is that I convinced Jeff and another mutual friend Jason to run the inaugural Marine Marathon in Afghanistan last year.. Jeff was funny because when we first were contemplating doing it we'd go out for a PT run of 3-4 miles and about half way through it all he would just say screw it and walk back to the base camp.. I was able to twist his arm hard enough to get Jeff to join Jason and I run it at Camp Leatherneck/and Camp Bastian. Jeff is a small person but strong as a mule when he needs to be and surprisingly enough he ran a respectable 4:04:33.. so after seeing him in the crowd and stopping just long enough to shake his hand seeing him gave me the motivation to keep pushing because I knew if I didn't beat his time from last year I'd never hear the end of it.. Anyone that knows Jeff in our Marine Corps circle understands he is a joker..and I would have never heard the end of it.. 38 seconds Jeff..you were so close but even with a tumor I still have what it takes...
Anyhow, I digress..as I mentioned I persuaded Bill to run a pace for 3:40 and if I would have just listened at the start and held back a little more in the beginning we probably would have broken the 4 hour mark..
Kristine and Maddie hopped the Metro around the Virginia and DC areas tracking me along the course..it is always fun to recognize a familiar face in the massive crowds..ladies you'll never know how much your support means.. For those who are asking what about Jake my son..well I know he was there with me in spirit, based on how cold it was, the large crowds and the length of the day we made a decision to let him stay at home and do laundry...may not seem fair but considering how he and Kristine are so much alike he would have pushed her buttons and made it no fun..btw he did a great job with the laundry...Thanks Lil Man... I love you...

I have my second quarterly appointment with Dr. Fine tomorrow and looking to forward to hearing what he has to say about my recent hospital stay and results from the PET scan plus the serial MRI I had yesterday.... I don't believe the tumor has grown, no new bleeding, or movement, but the PET scan may show otherwise so I'll update tomorrow once I know what the next steps are in my future.

Always Faithful..
The Gunny