The Mr. Muth Bump

After 11 years at Franklin school, teaching and coaching Cross Country and Track, Mr. Muth will be moving on at the end of this school year. It truly is the end of an era and he will be missed. To quote another Franklin parent, "He is an icon at Franklin." That is how the parents and more importantly the kids of Franklin view this teacher.

Having younger kids who had not yet had Mr. Muth as a teacher but just a Coach, I only recently got to know him and realized the difference he has made to this school. My first taste of his influence came last year, a few months before my Go the Distance run. I had created a Facebook page for the event so I could update the parents, kids and community on the plans and progress we were making. After a month or so I had roughly 75 fans of the Go the Distance page and they were mostly parents and local runners. One day at school I was having a conversation with Mr. Muth and mentioned the Facebook page. Being an avid runner and huge supporter of Franklin School, he inquired about how to find it on facebook and how he could start following that page. Great teacher but not terribly advance at Facebook! So I got home and sent him a link to the page and walked him through the process. The following day I was happy to see he had in fact become a fan of the Go the Distance Facebook page and would be keeping up with things as they evolved. Then it happened! Over the next few days the number of fans more than doubled! Every one of the the new fans were Franklin kids or former student of his! I declared it the Mr. Muth Bump. Weeks prior, I had been around to all the classrooms and told the kids about what I was going to do and tried to get them behind it but the simple fact that Mr. Muth supported Go the Distance and became a fan led the entire student body to buy into it. Imagine the benefits in being a teacher that has that kind of influence and respect of their students. I firmly believe that a teacher's job goes beyond reading the words from a text book and in order to teach a kid you need to connect with that kid.

Since then I've had the opportunity to get to know Mr. Muth much better and each week I spend a few hours on the trails running and talking with him and his wife Jessica. (favorite and definitely the most comical run of the week....maybe ask him the lizard story sometime) Recently I listened as he struggled with the decision to take an opportunity teaching at another school. What stood out to me the most was the weight he put on the fact that he would be letting some kids down by going to a new school. The move was clearly a good opportunity for him but he was distraught with the fact he wouldn't be there for some of the kids coming into the upper grades and that made his decision very difficult. A perfect example of a teacher who is there for the kids first and therefore has earned their trust and respect.

As Franklin loses an icon, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Muth for the years he has spent at Franklin, not only teaching and coaching, but also for leaving a lasting impression on the kids of what a teacher should be.

Feeling the Fire!

An ironically appropriate title for a blog post about a race through one of the hottest places on Earth, but in this case the fire I'm referring to has nothing to do with Badwater and everything to do with a feeling inside of me. It's an all consuming feeling of intensity, fear, happiness, commitment and satisfaction that has to become a part of me as I approach a run like this. I can't really say that I choose when the fire will start to burn hot, but it always happens.

My preparation for Badwater has been unconventional to say the least. There have been a number of physical and personal hurdles that have prevented what I would call a typical build up in preparation for the race. But within the last couple weeks a lot of things have begun to come together for me and for Go the Distance and I am finally feeling like this is real and Go the Distance~Badwater has taken hold of me. The fire is beginning to burn hot.

After almost no running while recovering from an Achilles tendon tear for 5 weeks, I've put together a couple good weeks of training with some runs in the 30 mile range. I have been pleasantly surprised to find out that the 20+ hours a week of biking and cross training while injured have maintained a decent fitness base and the legs are beginning to come around. With 11 weeks to go, I'm confident I can get to where I want to be physically. I'm not sure I would have been able to say that a month ago. The intensity of my training will now pick up substantially and everything from my pace to the beat coming from my ipod will pick up tempo.

The annual Franklin School Dinner Auction is this Saturday and we will be presenting Go the Distance~ Badwater to the parents and then to the kids at an Assembly on May 13th. We have been working on a great promo video that has really come together this week and I'm excited for the kids, parents and staff to see it. Link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruwGOxDMtX4 I also just saw the design for the t-shirts that will be made available to everyone and I can't wait to see the kids walking around school with their GTD/ Badwater shirts on. They look really cool! (sneak peek - see pic above!)

This week the starting waves were posted for the race and I found out I'll be starting in the final starting heat at 10am. The significance of this is that they intentionally start the fast guys last. It will be a thrill and an honor to stand at the Badwater starting line with some of the best ultra distance runners in the world. That was the starting wave I'd hoped to be in and the people I felt I should be running with.

As if I needed more things happening this week to help light the fire within me, the Sacramento Bee ran the first of a series of stories they will do on Go the Distance and what it takes to prepare for and finish an extreme race like Badwater. Link to the article here. http://bit.ly/kxv6uq

I guess I feel like the last few months have all just led up to this. I'm ready to release Go the Distance~ Badwater to the Franklin community and to light the fire within me. The legs and body are feeling stronger and more importantly the head and the heart feel right for the first time in quite a while. I'm ready to make the total commitment to training until July 11th at which time I'll stand at the starting line in Death Valley hoping the fire inside me is burning hotter than the scorching temperatures of Badwater!

How do you get to Badwater?

The other day I was asked, “How do you get to Badwater?” I responded that you drive your car out to the middle of Death Valley and follow the signs. They replied, “No, I mean in your mind. How do you get to a point in your mind where you decide that running 135 miles from Death Valley through one of the most inhospitable places on earth to the highest mountain in the lower 48 states in temps up to 130 degrees is a good idea and something that you want to do? That question was a little bit more difficult to answer.

After I walked away from that conversation the question stuck in my mind. I thought back to a early March when I was completing my race application to find that answer. When I first came up with the idea to run Badwater this year as my Go the Distance run for Franklin School, my initial hurdle was to get myself into the race. Each year only 100 people are invited to compete in this race and it all starts with the application process. It really isn’t a race application but more like a resume. Each runner who wants to participate will complete a thorough application that includes the listing of your race experience and finsh times and placement as well as a number of essay questions. The questions ask you to predict your finish time and give evidence to support your claims. They ask if you will be running for a charity and which one. They ask if you will be bringing any media attention to the event and maybe most importantly it asks why you want to run Badwater? Why? I felt that this was an important question and a good answer to this one might be my ticket into the race. After a lot of thought, here is how I answered that question:


Badwater has been on my mind for several years now and I guess I’ve always known that one day I’d be filling out this application. I want to run Badwater for all the same reasons I began doing ultramarathons in the first place. Running is the purest challenge I can find. It is just me against the distance, the course and the elements. I don’t race a lot. I’m not that interested in lining up every other weekend and giving a casual effort. I’d prefer to choose a race and plan and prepare for it for 6 months and let that race become my focus, my obsession. The obsession that gets me out of bed to exercise long before the sun comes up. The obsession that makes me eat right and take care of myself. The obsession that fills my mind with positive thoughts. Badwater is the premiere extreme endurance event in this country and it is the ultimate challenge and it was just a matter of time before it would become my obsession. 

I think the Badwater Ultramarathon suits my running very well. The longer the race gets the better I tend to do. I don’t have the leg speed of some of the faster guys but I do handle hot conditions very well and I believe I spend far more time and effort than most planning my race strategy. Badwater isn’t the kind of race where you can just show up fit and run well. The training, preparation and planning need to be specifically focused on just this race. Creating a realistic plan and executing it is what I believe gives me an advantage over some others I’ve raced against.

Planning for and completing a challenge has always been very rewarding to me but last year I found a reward with my running that was far greater than winning any race. Just months after losing my Mother to cancer in late 2009 I spent some time reflecting on my own life and I decided I needed to do something bigger than myself. About that time my kids school made the announcement that due to severe budget cuts the entire District Physical Education program was pink slipped for the following year. It became my mission to see that the Heath and Fitness programs would have the funding needed to continue and with that Go the Distance 24-hour run was born. On April 22, 2010 I began a 24-hour 128.75 mile run right on the track at my kids school. With school budget cuts being a hot media topic at the time, the event was covered by all 4 television news outlets in the Sacramento area and was picked up by CNN and MSNBC for two days. The event also included a 5k Fun run for the kids and families and 500 people came out to join me on the track that evening. In the end, with the support of sponsors, families and the community, we brought in nearly $30,000. Other schools in the District and local Foundations made their own contributions to the District as well and together we raised the funds needed to ensure there were no cuts to the Loomis Physical Education Department. Crossing that finish line I learned something about myself. I learned that this is who I wanted to be. I want to use my running to motivate, inspire and help others. As we all know the state budget issues have not improved and there will continue to be a need for me and Franklin school to "Go the Distance" to subsidize the District Budget again next year. Go the Distance has become my way of being the person I want to be. It has become my obsession and I need to run Badwater this year for these kids.

I guess I’ll never know if my answer to the question “Why do you want to run Badwater?” had anything to do with my invitation to this race but I’m glad they asked it because it gave me opportunity to really think about “Why”. Maybe now I should spend some time thinking about the question “How do you get to Badwater?”