Dean Karnazes & Michael Jackson

I mentioned in my last post that at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Expo, I got the DVD "Dean Karnazes is UltraMarathon Man". Dean is an ultra runner meaning he runs longer than a marathon in distance for races and for regular training runs. This DVD follows him and his family/crew as he runs 50 Marathons in 50 Days in 50 States. Sounds crazy, huh?

This is an very interesting DVD though. Since he runs on 50 consecutive days, he doesn't run too many actual race day marathons, but instead, mostly runs the exact course of a marathon with the help of the race director for that marathon. He also has many people join him as he runs these courses. He does run a few actual races like the Chicago Marathon, Marine Corp Marathon, a few smaller ones and finishes his 50th by running the New York City Marathon.

What I really liked about the DVD is that his message for doing this is for Kid's Health. He wants kids to get off the couch and run. This is the same reason for the Kid's Marathon I put on this past year and will continue to put on next year. It gave me one heck of a brainstorming idea today while I was at work. It is a huge and ambitious idea that I most likely will not pursue too far, but it is fun to dream.

As I watched, I realized that I actually ran one of the races that Dean Karnazes ran during his 50 days and I have also run 4 total marathons that he reenacted. the race I ran with him was the Chicago Marathon which was around #35 or so for him. He beat me by 25 minutes. He also ran the courses of the Grand Rapids Marathon (Michigan) , Twin Cities Marathon (Minnesota), and the Green Bay Marathon (Wisconsin). I have run the first 2 and ran 3 different marathon relays at Green Bay. It was fun seeing the courses and recognizing the sites on the DVD.

This was a fun DVD to watch and as I mentioned before, if any of my blog friends wants to borrow it to watch, just let me know. We can set up where I need to send it via email.

On the way home from Indianapolis, it was a nice warm sunny November afternoon. I was making good time so I decided to stop somewhere on the way home for 15 minutes. I was passing Gary, IN and pulled off the express way about 1 mile and saw Michael Jackson's boyhood home. Hey, I was curious. I took a few pictures to show you but was this house ever small! How on earth did there live 2 parents, 6 boys and 3 girls in this house? Truly amazing. Interesting enough was that all the posts in the area and street signs were all written over with wishes for Michael and his family.

The front of the house Michael Jackson grew up in.

The backyard of Michael Jackson's boyhood home. Tiny!

No running yet. Maybe a short run tomorrow. I am going over in my mind what may have gone wrong with the race and what I need to do to improve. I have some ideas and I will share them with you soon. The next marathon is The Icebreaker Indoor Marathon on January 24th. 2 1/2 month to prepare.