3rd Annual Richey Boy Camp out

Despite rain and slightly cooler temperatures, we still embarked on the Annual Richey Camp out. This year we got out a week later than usual due to the busy times, though we've had such a cool and wet spring that it still felt "early."

We left Ogden and drove up to Causey per normal and enjoyed a good rain filled canoe ride across to the back side for some camping. It's funny, that once we had camp set up and were ready to start cooking, the rain stopped and we had a couple of hours without rain. Anyway, it wasn't coming down that hard and made for a memorable experience.

As the kids grow, along with their appetite and our need for firewood, we almost didn't fit everything in the canoe. Next year, we'll need to get a bigger canoe, or take two trips to get it all in! Joseph was a much better help this year than last and I didn't feel like I was doing all the work.

This year, I tried to take a few steps back in the planning and activities, to let the boys become more involved. I tried to be more of an observer while they decided what we should do and when we should do it. We did some of the same things as in years past but some new stuff.

Dinner was the usual, hot dogs and potato chips. Dessert; s'mores. And plenty of candy. Because of the rain, we ended up spending a little more time in the tent playing cards, telling stories and jokes. It was fun to watch these three boys gel a little more together in this setting. The fighting and totem poling that was obvious at the outset eventually fell away and the three were much more "equals."

As soon as there was a hint of darkness, I tried the "did you hear that?" routine. It had the desired effect as all three boys lost their jovial nature and looks of concern immediately swept across their faces. I then reassured them that we were ok, but the pleadings of "scary stories" immediately departed for the night. We went on playing cards until it was by flashlight only and soon we would be drifting off to sleep.

Morning came with some sun and some more rain. I got up, leaving the boys to sleep and quickly got a fire started and began preparations for breakfast. Not wanting to wait for the boys to get the day started, I quickly mixed up the pancake batter and was soon cooking "homemade" buttermilk pancakes. I contend that there isn't anything better than buttermilk pancakes in a setting like that. 45 minutes away from the van via canoe, and the fresh mountain air, heavy with moisture from the storms. The sweet sound of birds chirping along with the wonderful smell of campfire. Eventually the smell of pancakes with maple syrup got the boys wondering if I was going to eat the entire lot. Soon I was joined by Andrew and Matthew. Joseph was the last to emerge and having elevated blood sugar, chose to go with the pop-tart rather than the healthier pancake option. (I still don't understand that one).

After breakfast, more rain, so we returned to the tent to lazily watch the morning wear on. At one point a couple of canoes came by, to which the boys excitedly greeted them. As I muttered under my breath that they were being obnoxious, I hear Andrew yell down to the canoes, "WE'RE OBNOXIOUS!!!"

With a break in the storm, we broke camp and decided to head back to Ogden. We gathered everything up as quickly as 3 young boys and a father can do, cleaned the camp, hauled everything down to the canoe and set off for home.

We faced a heavy headwind on our way back to the van. Again, I was grateful to a stronger 11 year old boy who's efforts didn't go unnoticed. We were still packed in pretty tight despite not having any firewood to haul out, plus only a small amount of food left.

Once we got back to Ogden, I was a little saddened to see a friend of Joseph come and invite him to go swimming. Not so much because by letting him go I would be left to put everything away, but I could see this comradeship between the boys dissolve, and all of a sudden there were little brothers and older brothers again, instead of just brothers.

All in all, I believe it was a successful trip and should embed itself as a good memory in the boy's minds.

Ogden Marathon

What a race! This marathon was by far my best race at this distance. It was sort of a bitter/sweet experience. As I cut 26 minutes of my previous time, (how can you argue with that?) yet I fell just shy of the sub 4 hour mark I was shooting for.

This year the Ogden Marathon celebrated it's 10th year of the annual "spring run off." I was excited to participate in the full marathon distance this year as opposed to the 1/2 that I did last year.

After taking some time off from the Top of Utah marathon for recovery from my IT Band injury, I was surprised to see that I put on as much weight as I did. I began training again just after the first of the year at about 210 lbs. I couldn't believe that I had "enjoyed" the holidays that much! Anyway, as I began training it felt as if I were running with a very heavy back pack. It took a couple months of better diet and increased mileage before I started to see the weight really start to fall off... isn't it always that way? Anyway, by mid February I was below 200 and by marathon day I weighed in at 186 pounds.

I did a couple of things different this time around, and it really paid off. First, I researched some different training programs and found that the Hal Higdon program really seemed to make a lot of sense to me. I liked that he gave day by day advise on what to do, in addition added other useful information as it pertained to the training program. I followed his Intermediate I program as closely as I could and calculated that I ran about 529 miles in preparation for the big race. What appealed to me most about his training, was that his style was to teach your body to conserve energy and run for longer periods of time, it was much less about pace training as he only had me run a pace workout once every week, and sometimes every other week. This I believe was key in eliminating/reducing injury. The most difficult weeks by far were weeks 10 and 11. I discovered that my body, at least at this time can't handle much more than 40 - 43 miles per week.

The second thing I did different was I used a massage therapist during the training routine. This was especially helpful after some of the long weeks. I found myself feeling like injury was avoided because those muscles were worked out ahead of time. A friend of mine suggested going every 6 to 8 weeks during intensive running to help the muscles recover. I highly recommend finding a therapist that works for you. Mine does a fantastic job and she doesn't charge an arm and a leg either.

By the time race day came around, I felt better than I ever have before. I weighed less than the previous two marathons, I didn't have any nagging injuries, and my outlook to the race was much more positive. My goal, as stated before was to come in under 4 hours. I didn't really fall behind the pace until about mile 21, and at that point it was still manageable, but by mile 25 I knew the sub 4 hour goals was beyond my reach. At the half-way mark I felt so good, and Shanda commented that my form and everything looked like I'd just started running!

The first several miles of the race were a blur. I was lost in the scenery of the South Fork Canyon. Running along a loud river with the sweet smell of mountain air, it's really hard to call what we were doing exercise. Running the long straight away and then around the dam really passed quite quickly. I found a few runners that looked strong and appeared to be working toward the same goal as myself and kept pace clear up to about the top of Ogden Canyon. In fact, while in the canyon I could see their backs until about mile 23.

As I emerged from Ogden Canyon, I still felt pretty good about my pace and was excited to see that I could make my goal of under 4 hours. As I hit the next mile marker I calculated in my head that I would need to do an 8:30 mile the next two to guarantee it. As it turns out, if I could have stayed around 8:50ish I'd still have been close. Anyway, I felt confident as I had run that path so many times before in my training that I could achieve that kind of time. As I approached the next mile marker, 24 I looked down at my watch and thought I saw 9:30! Again, as I reviewed the times it turns out it was 9:14... strange. Regardless, I felt having pushed that hard and being that far back, I knew I wouldn't make the time. The next two miles 10:18 and 10:26. I really did hit the wall at that point, though I didn't stop running. This was also different from before, as I walked several times in Logan and Salt Lake. The only time I stopped running was at the water/power-aide stations and there I walked only long enough to get the fluids down and then I was back off and running again.

Turning on to Grant Avenue, with the finish line in sight, I dug deep and pushed myself to run as fast as I could... (still not very fast). It was all I had left in the tank to close it out, and I did it! My wife and parents said I looked great coming down the stretch. Once I crossed the line I couldn't believe the rush of nausea that came over me! For the next two hours I battled the urge to throw-up. It was difficult to eat anything and the weight of the medal hanging around my neck made me feel like I was on the verge of passing out.

Final time... 4 hours 3 minutes 24 seconds.

What a difference between marathons! I felt I had prepared before, but definitely not as much as this time. In addition, no pain medication was taken during the race. Zero IT Band pain, and no other nagging pains during the race.

Executive Council - San Antonio

The 2009 Executive Council for New York Life was held in San Antonio this year. Shanda and I were fortunate to leave the kids behind and have our first vacation sans kids in a very long time.

Shanda enjoyed waking up by "her" clock, while only having the responsibility of having to get herself ready for the day. I enjoyed having uninterrupted time with her while we walked the city and enjoyed the sights.

It was a lot of fun visiting the Alamo and different parts of San Antonio. We did a fair amount of walking through the city. We were also able to spend time with Craig, Ben and Sam at various times in the trip.

The meetings were excellent, and I felt like I got a lot of really good ideas to help me expand what I'm doing for and with my clients. It was nice to hear such encouraging things from the guys at the top of the company. As always, New York Life put on an amazing spread and treated the agents with such amazing class.

We bumped into a few friends from around the country. It is always good to renew the acquaintences with these guys and find out what's going on in their worlds. This is one of the parts about Council that I look forward to most, is seeing friend and visiting with them.

We were also able to meet and shake hands with the Council President. Tim has had a big impact on my business and ability to cope with the enormous stress it is to getting started. His "one day at a time" system has really helped me focus on things that are in my control without having to stress about everything that "could" go wrong.

The highlight of the trip was the final evening at La Villita. The entire section of town was designated for New York Life agents and their families. We ate tons of great Southwest food, and yummy desserts. In addition, we got to ride a mechanical bull several times, did some dancing, and enjoyed the live music.

Another highlight was spending time with my brothers with all three of us qualifying for the council. It was fun to get our picture taken together at the honor dinner.

On the trip home I started feeling a bit ill. With the swine flu scare I was afraid that's what I may have contracted... though never confirmed it took me about 3 days to get back on my feet and working again.

Top of Utah Marathon

My 2nd marathon was an improvement as for time over my 1st. It was easier in some ways and extremely difficult in others. With the Deseret News I felt great until about the 1/2 marathon mark when my IT Band started to flair. For the Top of Utah, I was dealing with IT Band pains from the beginning. Not wanting to drop out I began taking ibuprofen from the beginning of the race and probably consumed 1800 mg over the course of the race. I paid dearly for that over the remainder of the day with extreme stomach pains, and then over the next few days as my leg ached like it did the very first time I over worked it.

Never-the-less, I was very happy to have completed in 4:29:26. A slight improvement over the previous race.

I was really excited to see my family several times along the course. It really surprised me how seeing them cheer me along really helped motivate me and helped me along. The first 1/2 of this marathon was a great run despite the IT Band pain. I couldn't believe how pretty it was, with perfect temperatures. Later in the run it really got warm and made it difficult.

Also, the day before I met Dane Raushenberg who wrote a book 52 marathons in 52 weeks. He was promoting his book in the race packet pick-up section. Anyway, somewhere along the "wall" portion of the marathon I look over and see him cheering us runners on. I don't know if he ran the race and was walking back along the course to cheer us on, or if he just stuck around the following day to watch. But something about his energetic and enthusiastic cheering really struck a chord with me. He truly understood better any other spectator what each of us runner was going through and knew how to motivate us along.

Deseret News Marathon!

Yesterday I competed in the Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake City, Utah... my first marathon! The night before I tried to get to sleep at about 8pm but probably didn't drift off until 9pm. I had to wake up at 2:20am in order to make it to SLC in time to board the buses. All day prior to the race every time I thought about anything running/marathon related I experienced butterflies like no other! I was a little surprised to wake up refreshed and excited for the run. Usually I dream about missing the bus or showing up without my running shoes or something along those lines, but I slept very well and felt very ready to go.

My training has included the Ogden half marathon, the Ragnar relay, and a bunch of my own personal long runs. I originally was planning my first marathon in September up in Logan. However, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't wait to run... so I signed up about two weeks ago for the Deseret News. A little more than a week ago I decided to do a 16 mile run to see how well I felt, and learned I needed better socks, and that my legs could definitely handle at least that distance.

I'm not sure how this marathon relates to others, but the course takes you down a 3,200 foot elevation drop. I knew the drop would be difficult but I had no idea how hard it would be on my knees. Before I even started running I had these goals in mind; be patient... don't get caught up in the fast downhill, drink a lot of water, and try and have fun. I really wanted this to be a good experience without the pressures of pace, time, etc. I estimated 4 hours but wasn't going to get too excited about beating 4 hours or coming in behind 4 hours.

After 1 mile of running I was surprised to see that my pace was right on at 9 minutes. This surprised me because even though I was telling myself to be patient and go slow, I didn't think I'd be that slow. Regardless I tried not to get too excited about that and pushed on. By mile 6 the brutal downhill came to a temporary halt as the course moved from East Canyon to Emigration Canyon. The next 1.5 to 2 miles were a pretty decent climb. I am finding that uphill runs aren't too bad for me... I mean aside from the greater cardio strain, I feel pretty good going up. All too soon the uphill ended and again the downhill drop for about another 6 to 8 miles. This is where I was surprised by some really strong aching in my knees. It seems like here around 13 to 14 miles I was forced to walk a bunch and try to stretch more. I didn't expect that this soon into the race that my legs would break down, so I really hoped and prayed that it would just go away. The next mile or so uphill seemed to do the trick in terms of helping my knee feel better.

As I came through the Bonneville Golf Course, I met up with a lady that I later learned was running her 75th marathon. Our pace was good and we were able to talk a little bit. Just having someone to talk to made a huge difference in my mind frame. I was able to take my mind off minor irritations and pains in my body and the next mile or so passed very quickly. I found a pace that felt very comfortable and I cruised along.

As I approached mile 20 I fully expected to hit "the wall." I tried to prepare myself mentally by thinking of the 6 mile runs that I'd done in my training. Oddly enough, and perhaps thanks to my very slow start, I felt great at 20, 21 and 22. Unfortunately I didn't miss the wall entirely as it was waiting to pound me at mile 23.

With the wall firmly on my back I turned off the ipod as it was getting so difficult to continue. It was all I could do to force myself to keep the legs going. I was in the city now and the sun was up and killing me. The heat, combined with the distance caused me to become overwhelmed with nausea. My feet ached and the hot pavement seemed to burn with every step. I tried to remember the course map but couldn't. All I could think was "don't stop" so that I could finish sooner and be done with this insanity. I would repeat in my mind, "the faster you run, the quicker you're done."

The other thing that really stood out to me, was how long it took to run a block. On South Temple, I noticed as I crossed 700 East and then was shocked as I came up on 600 East, and thought, I only ran 1 block!?!



The final length was surreal as I forced myself to finish. I mustered up whatever strength I could and pushed to the finish line. My family was to the right and I was glad to see them cheering me on. As I finished and was given a medal of completion, I slowly walked into the recovery area. Normally when I stop running from a long run, I immediately feel relief to my legs. This time however, I was amazed the my legs didn't stop hurting. I had a very hard time catching my breath, and couldn't get enough ice/water/power aide.



The concern on Shanda's face was obvious, so I can only imagine how terrible I looked. She kept repeating, "You did a marathon! Are you ok?... you did a marathon, are you ok?" As I looked at the family and thought about what I just did, I was overwhelmed with emotion, mixed with pain throughout my entire body!



I finished the race in 4 hours 30 minutes and 7 seconds. I was 318 out of 492 runners, 37 of 51 in my age group, and 231 of 327 among males.

Today as I sit here in pain, I wonder if I'll be able to do another. I'm signed up for the Top of Utah Marathon, but my right knee is very sore. The prospect of running even 1 mile right now is overwhelming. I have a hard enough time even moving from a sitting to standing position!

For now I'll not worry about the future or the past, but be content with the knowledge that I am a marathon runner!

Mutton Bustin' Matthew

Monday July 20th, on the opening night of the Pioneer Days Rodeo in Ogden, Matthew competed in the Mutton Busin' Competition. With the competition age/weight limits of 8 years old, 50 lbs. Matthew being 8 yrs old and exactly 50 lbs., held an advantage over his younger and slighter competitors. However, it was his grit and determination that really impacted his advantage.



Matthew was the 2nd to last rider to go, and who knows if he had butterflies or even knew what he was getting in too? I think he was excited to do this but he didn't really seem too emotional one way or the other.

Prior to his ride the best score previous was an 81 posted by a High School buddy Jim Wilson's son. I had some success taking pictures of the rides, but for some reason had a hard time locking onto Matthew's ride. His sheep came out faster than I expected and turned a few times to throw me.



In the end, Matthew rode for approximately 20 seconds and scored an 83. The score would stand the final rider and Matthew went on to win 1st place in the competition. I couldn't believe how well he did. Some of the pictures really focus on how hard he held on and how well he did to stay on so long.



Great job Matthew!



After the rodeo we were treated to the Ogio Freestyle Motocross Riders. It was pretty amazing to watch them go, but almost more entertaining to watch the kid's reactions...