craigdailypress.com

The two worst experiences of pain I've ever had were when my appendix ruptured in elementary school and the last four miles of my first marathon.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I'm back at it.

Although I don't have any more appendixes to rupture, I am training for another marathon. For the third year, I've signed up for the Steamboat Marathon in June.

The results from my previous two races were disappointing to me. The first year, I could barely keep my eyes open or my legs moving at the finish, the second race I walked at mile 19 because of knee pain.

I've thought about my training quite a bit since the last race, and it isn't too difficult to point out where things went wrong. I didn't train enough.

The first year, I slacked off in training until late April. Last year, I trained well up until late April and then trailed off. Both times I lost motivation at some point.

This year I decided it was time to put together a full season of training, but I needed to find a reason to keep myself motivated.

I signed up for the two previous marathons for myself. I thought they would be a good idea because they would keep me in shape, give me something to focus on during the long winter and of course, give me something to write about. I was doing it for only for myself and that was the problem.

The only person keeping me accountable was the person in the mirror. This year, it's going to be different.

I'm running this race in honor of my dad, and I hope that all of you will keep me accountable.

My father, Martin Ross Pressgrove Jr., was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease about two years ago. Parkinson's is a chronic, progressive disorder of the central nervous system that affects motor skills to the point that patients are unable to control body movements.

You can keep me motivated by helping me raise money for Parkinson's research. My goal is to raise $500 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds Parkinson's research (www.michaeljfox.org). Michael J. Fox has the disease and has become one of the leaders in trying to find a cure.

I understand that the effort to find a cure for Parkinson's might not be near and dear to some people, so my effort is also going to help locally.

The Craig Daily Press is going to match up to $500 of the donations, and we'll give that to the Moffat County United Way.

Starting Tuesday, there will be a sign-up sheet for donations at the front desk of the newspaper office or you can e-mail your information and the amount you wish to donate to my address, dpressgrove@craigdailypress.com.

A marathon is 26 miles so my proposal is that you can sponsor me per mile. A penny a mile, a dime a mile, a dollar a mile or whatever you would like.

My accountability not only comes from knowing that people are watching, but if I don't finish the race I will pay your sponsorship for the miles I don't finish. So if I only make it 20 miles and you sponsored me for a dollar a mile, I owe $6 of your sponsorship.

Therefore, I also won't collect money until after the race on June 5.

I plan to have everybody's name who sponsors me on the shirt that I race in.

I'll write a column at least once a month to update everybody how I'm doing.

Update No. 1: I started training in January. I ran about four days a week and lifted twice a week. My goal for the first month was to get my body back to being comfortable when I ran. The first couple of weeks I felt like my arms wanted to go the exact opposite direction of my legs. It didn't help that my legs felt like they had braces on them. I weighed 173 pounds when I started. That's almost 20 pounds heavier than what I weighed in college when I ran competitively.

In February, things were starting to click. I was up to five or six days a week on the road. Then, as I do every year, I got sick during the week of state wrestling. I had to take eight days off to recover.

When I started back up the braces were on my legs again and my lungs felt like they had shrunk to the size of a couple of raisins.

I've finally returned back to decent form. This week, I had two runs that were longer than an hour. I weighed 164 pounds the last time I checked.

That about describes my progress so far. I hope to see some of you at the office or to read an e-mail from you.

Time to go running.