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While this is actually our second day in Honduras, it was first day for our medical brigade and evangelism in Namasigue. After getting in an early 6-mile run through the mountains and having breakfast at the Mission Lazarus Posada, we headed out toward Namasigue around 8:30am. We got the clinic up and running around 10:00am, and the evangelism team was out in the village by 10:30 or so.

Evangelism – One of the neat things today was to see the growth and maturity of the local church. In past years we spent most of our time holding Bible studies with new contacts, but this year has started off a little differently. We did follow-up visits with four women who have been baptized into Christ within the past 1 1/2 weeks. This is the result of the local preacher Javier and his emphasis on building a solid local evangelism team within Namasigue. These young men are doing fantastic work, and we are witnessing the fruits of those efforts. In addition to these four, we were also able to visit with several families who are active in the local congregation and offer them encouragement and deliver food.

With Javier the local preacher in Namasigue

We were blessed to have a Bible study with Esperanza Salinas and her daughter Dania who decided to put on Christ in Baptism. We were also able to participate in the baptism of Gloria and Ninosca Estrada and Eni Avila.

Praying with the new converts after their baptism into Christ

Overall it was another fantastic day in Namasigue. It is awesome to see the powerful work God is doing here. Please pray for our team as we continue to work throughout this week. 

Wayne Smith baptizing Esperanza Salinas into Christ

Clinic – While I didn’t personally spend much time in the clinic, they were able to see 160 patients, which included 22 tooth extractions and distributing 45 pairs of eye glasses. It was encouraging to hear from our doctors that they are seeing a lot less parasites this year, and we think that is a direct result from the water filtration system that was installed by Greg Armstrong and his team from Friendship Christian last year. What an incredible blessing this is to the village.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading out at 6:30am so, time to call it a day.

The drive down was harder than usual due to the flood damage to CA-5 and CA-1. Never seen potholes like that in my life.

We had a good dinner and the group is getting ready to have a worship service at the Posada before calling it a night.

Looking forward to tomorrow in Namasigue.

Our group made it safely to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We’re grabbing a bite to eat before grabbing our rental vehicles and heading south to San Marcos. Feels strange to be sitting in a Burger King with the NCAA Tournament on TV. Glad to be leaving TV behind for a week.

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Tomorrow morning I will leave Nashville with my Dad and a group of 30+ from Maple Hill Church of Christ in Lebanon TN on a mission trip to southern Honduras. This will be my fourth time to go down, and my third time working in the village of Namasigue.

Most of our group will be holding a medical brigade, but I will again have the opportunity to work with a three-man evangelism team teaching throughout the village with the local preacher.

I hate being away from Olivia, Kate and Sara, but relish the opportunity to teach the gospel in this impoverished country. Even though I don’t go down there thinking about what I can get out of it, I always come back with a fresh perspective on the things that really matter in life.

I don’t know if I’ll have Internet connectivity or not, but if I do I’ll try to post daily updates on the evangelism efforts. Prayers would be appreciated for a safe and successful trip.

This morning the Nashville Striders group training run for the Country Music Marathon was a 20-miler on the Stones River and Shelby Bottoms Greenways. There were several members of our group who were planning to participate (most of them are running Boston), so I decided to join them for at least part of the run. My coach had told me on Thursday that for the next couple of weeks he just wants me to try and keep my mileage up as long as my legs feel good, and then we would start thinking about the specific training plan for Milwaukee.

Since I’m only two weeks removed from the NOLA Marathon I decided to just play it by feel with regard to how much distance I would go for today. Most of the route was an out-and-back, so shortening the run would not be a problem.

However, I ended up feeling good for the entire run and actually completed 21-miles. I love this route and the run was fantastic. My overall pace was in the 8:30s, but this was a mix of miles from the 9:10s in the beginning to 7:40s at the end. I was especially pleased with how well my legs felt on big hills near the end of the run. Dan and Mary pushed the pace through this section, and my legs felt strong all the way to the end (BTW…Dan and Mary looked great).

Right now my confidence is still pretty high from NOLA, and I’m excited about the things my coach has in store for my training over the spring and summer. Beginning tomorrow, my Dad and I leave for an 8-day mission trip to southern Honduras. Not sure how much I’ll get to run, but any mileage completed will be up in the mountains at 5,000 ft above sea level.

Two weeks after we get back I’ve got the Oak Barrel Half Marathon in Lynchburg, followed 3-weeks later by the Country Music Marathon (as the 4-hour pacer), and then the 500 Festival Mini Marathon (in Indianapolis) a week after that. Busy Schedule!

Beast Mode…ON!

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Last night’s track workout was delayed due to a band of storms that moved through the Nashville area between 5:00 and 6:00pm. For a while I thought there was no way we were going to get the workout in, but by 10 minutes after 6pm we were on the track warming up.

It turned out to be a perfect night after the storm with a beautiful sunset and even a rainbow in the distance. The workout consisted of three sets of intervals:

Set 1

• 800m (200m)
• 400m (200m)
• 3 x 200m (100m) [400m]

Set 2

• 800m (200m)
• 400m (200m)
• 3 x 200m (100m) [400m]

Set 3

• 600m (200m)
• 3-Laps of Straights and Curves

With warmup and cooldown the workout came out to just under 7-miles for the night. I took it fairly easy since I’m still less than 2-weeks removed from the NOLA Marathon, but generally felt pretty good all evening. I can tell that my legs are still a bit fatigued, but this really only manifests itself when I try to push the pace. I did feel a bit of tightness in my calves tonight after my 6.5-mile Hattori run the morning before. However, I think this is more soreness than strain or injury.

Overall, it was a good night at the track! Beast Mode…ON!

Saucony Kinvara 3 – I’m totally getting geeked up about the upcoming Kinvara 3 from Saucony. My initial nervousness about the changes has now turned into…CAN’T WAIT TO TAKE THESE FOR A SPIN. While the official drop is in May, they are supposed to begin showing up at specialty retailers on April 26th.

Dang, yet another reason to move home 🙂

No place like Nashvegas 🙂

On a side note, the Jim Spivey Running Club that I mentioned is now based in Chicago. Jim started a club in Nashville when he was the cross-country coach at Vanderbilt. After a few years he accepted a job with Asics and moved back to Chicago. Pretty cool to be coached through a track workout by a 3-time Olympian.

Easy 6.5-mile run this AM in my Saucony Hattoris with Nathan & Paxton from the EW Nature Center. Slightly faster pace than normal for a Hattori run, especially after the first couple of miles, but it felt pretty effortless. Legs actually felt better than they did yesterday. Really want to do more of my easy miles in these shoes since I can tell such a HUGE difference in my feet and calves since adding them to the rotation. Now will have a full 35 hours off before track tomorrow night.

Beast Mode…ON

Tonight Kate and I started logging miles for what will be her 6th kid’s marathon. The idea is that they complete 25 miles before race day, and then on the night before the St. Jude Country Music Marathon, they all run the final 1.2 miles around LP Field to complete their own “kid’s” marathon.

The cool thing is that Kate enjoys doing this, and it means that we get to do some running together. Also her school has organized runs once per week leading up to the event to help the kid’s get in their mileage. On race day, everyone from their class gets to run together.

Tonight we were able to get in 2 miles on the Harpeth River Greenway running in 1/4 mile increments. Between each interval we took a 1-minute break, with a slightly longer break between miles 1 and 2. Our average pace for the intervals was around 9:30 per mile. I’ve said this before, but even though Kate is just 7-years-old, I wish I had her running form. She is natural forefoot runner which stands in stark contrast to my heavy heal strikes.

Anyway, it was a beautiful evening and a fun run with my daughter.

Is the coach a local guy or are you doing on-line coaching?

David…he is local. He is actually our track coach at the Jim Spivey Running Club, and is the buddy who just ran a 2:49 full in New Orleans.

After taking two days off it was good to get back on the road with Nathan this morning for a relatively easy paced 9-mile run. We ran a modified version of our “Steeplechase” route through Percy and Edwin Warner Parks, which is quite hilly. My legs are still a bit sluggish after the marathon last week, but overall this run felt pretty good, especially considering the hills and the humidity. Even at 6am, the temps were in the mid 60s and the humidity was nasty. Not looking forward to the summer months when we get this type of humidity with temps in the 80s and 90s.

On a side note, I have decided to hire a coach to help me develop my training plan for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in October. I know I’m going to have to take my training up to another level to qualify for Boston, and I really wanted someone else with a lot of experience to give me their recommendation on what that should look like. Very excited (an nervous) to see what he comes up with.

Beast Mode…ON

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Even though I had already been selected by the Nashville Striders as the “official” 4-hour pacer for the Country Music Marathon, I was not officially registered for the race until today when I finally got my code for FREE registration. This is obviously part of being a pacer, but it was still pretty cool to go through the registration process and see this at the end…

If you are running either the CMM Half or Full and see my 4-hour pace sign, make sure you stop by and say hello. Keeping my fingers crossed for great weather!

Today has been a pretty miserable day in Nashville with widespread rain, frequent downpours, and gusty wind. I was afraid that our weekly track workout with the JSRC might get cancelled, or that no-one else would show up, so I got to track about an hour early to get in some miles around Vanderbilt campus in case either of these happened.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Susan also show up early for the same reasons and we ended up getting in over 5-miles prior to the workout in the heavy rain and wind. By the scheduled start time, Sue Anne, Aine, and Paxton had also arrived and we were able to have a great track workout.

Since I am still only four days removed from the NOLA Marathon, I took this workout really easy. Even with the nasty conditions I am happy to have completed the miles. The final total with the warmup, workout, and cool-down was just under 9.5-miles.

On a side note, it has been 2-hours since the end of the workout, and I am just now beginning to regain feeling in my toes. I don’t ever remember my feet being as cold as they were after the run was over. During our warmup miles, Susan said “We’re either really tough, or really stupid” to be out here doing this. I responded that to be long distance runners, I think you really have to be a little bit of both.

Beast Mode…ON

My next scheduled marathon is the St. Jude Country Music Marathon on April 28th in Nashville as the official 4-hour pacer. Saw this picture today of the various medals for the race, and I’ll have to say that these have got to be some of the most blah medals I’ve seen for a big race (40k+ participants). What’s worse is that the best of the three is the “Mini Marathon” which is a 2.6-mile race.

What do you think? Anybody else out there running the Country Music?