John: Hello, I'm back! First, to tell you we have these awesome 100 Days t-shirts. Even though 100 Days is technically over, we can still celebrate with t-shirts and tank tops.

So, toward the end of my 100 Day health and fitness journey, race car trainer driver, Jeff Richter, and my trainer, Laura, both gave me the same advice. After the cameras stop rolling, they said, I should train for something to keep myself focused and accountable. I responded to this advice by spending a week in Jamiaca. I did work out some there, emphasis on the some. But, when I came home, I got really overwhelmed with work and, while I was still going to Laura twice a week, I wasn't exercising much on my own. And, I started to see, you know, how it could all fall apart, how slowly you convince yourself to work out less and less. So, I decided to take their advice, and train for a mini marathon.

Laura encouraged me to use this Hal Higdon training regimen, and I did, somewhat loosely. Basically, I went on long runs every Saturday, starting out at six or seven miles a day, and then building up to twelve. And, a few shorter runs throughout the week, with one weekly rest day. So, my goal was to finish the 13.1 mile race in under two hours and ten minutes, which would be a nine minute and fifty second pace per mile.

Now, thanks to 100 Days, I do enjoy running genuinely. I use to think people were lying when they said that, but now, I mostly believe them. However, it is definitely work, and I have to convince myself to do it. And, for some reason, knowing that I had paid real money to run this half marathon got me motivated. Like, I would just think, well I don't really want to run today, but I am going to have to run in front of all of these strangers in eight weeks, so I guess I should. I missed almost none of my training sessions and a week before the race, I ran 12 miles at an average pace of 9 minutes, 20 seconds per mile, and I was feeling great.

I asked my friend, Anne, who is an excellent and experienced runner, and also a wonderful person, to pace me, and she kindly agreed. But, the morning of the race, I walked downstairs, and standing in my pantry was another surprised pace setter, Chris Waters. Chris trained for exactly zero minutes for this half marathon, so I figured that I would stick with him for the first five or six miles, and then, you know, leave him in the dust. Just to be clear, I had no misgivings about this, because I had a time to make.

So, we went downtown and joined the crowd at the Indianapolis Mini Marathon, which is huge. Like, 30 thousand runners huge, and I was a bit overwhelmed by it all and extremely nervous. Laura and I had talked about not starting out too fast, and I certainly didn't. In fact, we ran our first mile in ten minutes, which is somewhat short of the pace I was hoping to achieve in the race, even though conditions were more or less perfect.

But after a while we settle in to a comfortable pace, around 9 minutes and 45 seconds per mile.  The course wound its way through the city and then eventually reached the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is one of my favorite places in the world. Like, many of my favorite days have happened at the speedway, from driving the pace car at an IndyCar race, to watching the cars with my kids. And as we ran along the track I felt a burst of energy and our miles started to get quicker; 9 minutes 40 seconds, 9 minutes 25 seconds, 9 minutes 20 seconds. 

As we left the track I saw my family cheering me on, which gave me yet another burst of energy and I ran mile 9 in under 9 minutes and 15 seconds.  I knew Anne would be able to stay with me but I thought for sure that Chris was about to crack.  But ya, no, it was me who was about to crack.  Around mile 10 I suddenly began to really struggle. I realized that Chris and Anne were slowing down with me, so I told them to just go ahead but they wanted to stay with me. 

By mile 12 I was exhausted, I mean I had nothing left and I started thinking back to when I'd first begun in 100 days, when I would  struggle through the last mile of a three-mile run by thinking "Just three more songs until I'm finished".  So I kept running, albeit slowly. Three more songs, two more songs, one more song. Chris kept encouraging me telling me that I had it, that we were going to make the time, but I wasn't even thinking about the time. I was just running behind him and Anne, utterly exhausted, trying to keep going.

Honestly, it felt like they were dragging me to the finish line, and it worked. We finished together in 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 57 seconds.  The race, like 100 days itself, taught me some lessons about fitness and health, but mostly it taught me about friendship.  Laura was waiting for us at the finish, as were our families, and awhile later as I limped back toward our car, Laura asked me "So what's the next race?  There's a half marathon coming up in September".  "Maybe." I said. Maybe. I start training for that one next week.

Thanks again for watching this episode of 100 days.  Obviously we're not making weekly videos anymore, but we will continue to keep you updated on our health and fitness journeys, and again check out this awesome merch available at dftba.com. Also if you're going to be at VidCon, it will be there at the dftba.com booth.

Thanks again for watching and for all your encouragement. I actually have to go now to workout with Laura, so bye.