I ran with Dean Karnazes!!!

On March 25th, Dean Karnazes launched his bid to run all the way from California to New York. That's almost 3,000 miles. He is crazy!! If you don't know who Dean is, he's an ultra runner who has done some amazing things, written a few books, made a movie and is an incredibly inspirational guy. I've been a fan of his ever since my first TnT coach told me if I wanted to get really inspired, I should read Dean's book, "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner." I did read it and couldn't put it down. Then when I did put it down, I wanted to go run a marathon!!

Dean teamed up with Regis & Kelly from the Regis & Kelly Live show to raise money for Action for Healthy Kids, an organization committed to fighting obesity and undernourishment in kids. He started in Anaheim, CA at Disneyland on Friday, March 25th and is making his way across the United States, running 40-50 miles a day and sleeping only an average of about 4 hours at a time. (See where he's at now here: http://www.dadt.com/live/special/runacrossamerica/map/index.html) 

As part of his run across the country, 5k events are held where people can sign up to run with Dean for a donation to the charity. On Saturday the 26th, he made it to Riverside, and I got a chance to run with him. It was super exciting for me, since I have been inspired by Dean since I first started running. He spoke to the crowd of several hundred before the gun went off, and about 100 or so of us took of on a cross country course. It was a GORGEOUS morning, and we ran up a lovely green hillside and through trails that felt like we were far away from the rush of traffic and city streets. (I really LOVED trail running. More on that another time!) Dean made a visible effort to adjust his pace so he could have a chance to chat with many different people throughout the run. He was friendly, down to earth and fun, making jokes about the mud (it had been raining all night the night before, so the trail was full of puddles and slippery mud) and seeming to enjoy chatting with everyone as we ran along. I was able to keep up with him the entire run, which completely surprised me. Granted, he was going a bit on the slow side because he still had about 40 more miles to go, but I was pleased with myself anyway!

Overall it was a fantastic experience that I won't soon forget. The only bummer of the day was that he had told us he'd be available after the run to hang out and chat with people for a little while, but the TV crew absolutely WHISKED him off soon after we got back. Later, when he was running on to his next stopping point, some friends of mine saw where he was and went out to run along with him and again, the TV crew stepped in ran them off. They wouldn't allow anyone to run with him, even on a public street, which I found very disappointing. I do wish him well on his journey across the country, and I'm really glad I got to run along with him for a bit. And glad I could keep up! Go, Dean, Go!

(that's me in the pink hat on the left!)