Call Me CRAZY!

Yes, please call me very crazy. Two days after a disastrous run and trip to the ER, I am still strongly considering doing the Columbus Marathon. It might be the masochistic attitude of all runners or the hope for redemption for a reasonable marathon time. Hal Higdon has a very easy two-week program that I am going to stick with - and if I only do the half marathon (which I have gotten approval for at least that) I will have maintained my level of fitness.

Wed - 2 miles
Thurs - 3 miles
Sat - 6 miles
Sun - 1-2 hours of running/cross training/ resting - whatever the body needs most
Tue - 4 miles
Wed - 2 miles
Sat - 2 miles

Listen to the NPR report on the Marathon

NPR report

Picts from the Chicago Fun Run

Before the race...and before the heat of the day was upon us
Pacing tatoos!

The G-spot in the Runner Reunite area. Didn't actually work out as the designated reunion spot.

We were planning on having a nice finishing picture in front of the fountain, but instead, we just got the matching GOTR t-shirts.

$20 Worth of Popsicles

Wow - lots of angry people posting comments on the marathon forum and the Trib articles. I'm glad we were in the group of faster runners that had access to supplies throughout the whole race.

Best part of the race was seeing a bicycle ice cream stand and salivating over the thought of having a popsicle. Lisa quickly reminded me, "That's what emergency cash is for!" So we raced up to the vendor and bought $20 worth of popsicles and handed them out to the overheated runners beside us. That took our minds off of the heat and sluggish legs for probably a whole mile!

Final Track Workout

Tonight I really wanted Amber to be here and doing our workout so that I could experience her overjoyous reaction to the last track workout before the marathon. Nonetheless, Megan and I met up at Avonworth HS to do 6x400 - the quickest and easiest workout yet. My how I love the taper. Megan ran off to dinner and I am off to some arts and crafts - as if I needed to add anything to my schedule - when am I going to pack again????

Tuesday Morning

It was a 7 miler for me this morning. It was a nice morning, very cool. Ryan ran with me for about 2.5 miles, then I finished it up on my own. I passed a girl on the bike trail that had the same under armor top as me, in hot pink (same as mine). It was kind of comical.

The day for me today was pretty annoying. I had to run many errands. I had to get my car inspected and it passed the SMOG test. Surprisingly. Tomorrow I hope to get plates at the DMV. That place is repulsive.

I hope you two are doing well!

Sat. 10 Miler

Saturday was the designated long run day for the weekend jaunt. Ryan actually ran with me for this one. I think I was a little phobic about him pushing the pace, but he really didn't, which was nice. We were fine. I tried the Espresso Love gu. It was yummy! Although I must have some kind of lactic reaction because I had so much phlegm in my throat afterward. Nasty. We saw the typical boaters, fishers, and farmers. Tomato season is still here! They continue to harvest them and therefore we see tomatoes all over the road from flying out of the truck. And they start to smell...

I'm getting stoked for the marathon, or as stoked as I can be. It will be awesome to see you all!!!

Beating the Mayor

Completely forgot to mention in my posting about the Great Race that we beat Luke Ravenstahl. After our initial observation of him at Run Around the Square, we thought we would have no problem beating him and even challenged Geoff to try to beat the mayor. But he brought his A-game for the Great Race, nearly squeaking by us. We will let everyone know that he got to fire the gun and then actually start a mere 10 seconds after the clock started, while our differential between chip and clock was more like 4 1/2 minutes.

Chip time for Great Race: Lisa 45:57, Megan 48:00, Luke 49:21
Clock time for Great Race: Luke 49:31, Lisa 50:33, Megan 52:36
Time for Run Around the Square: Lisa 24:19, Megan 24:56, Amber 25:56, Luke 29:18

Luke should get a round of applause for his first 10k completion, though!

Gold Member Status

While making renovations to the Silver Member locker room we have to use the gold member locker room...darn :-) Code is 513...they don't have that posted anywhere - you have to go ask.

The Great Race

10k results - should be noted that Lisa and I had substantially higher clock times than those other finishers around us...this represents our elite football moves when it comes to starting at the back of the pack. [Next year we'll start closer to the actual start line.]

5k results

Injury reports - on the televised news this morning they made it sound like loads of people had dropped due to the heat. This report is a little more tame and while it was sunny on the Boulevard, I, personally, think that it was a fantastic day for a run!

Top finishers article

Swimming with a Sailfish

When I initially started swimming this morning the pool was so empty that I had my own lane, plus there was even a completely open lane! I was happy. Then it happened. The first person came in where it was necessary to double up. Why pick me? I knew this guy was a fast swimmer before he even got into the pool - had that swimmer body - broad shoulders and the European style trunks that are just slightly more modest than a Speedo. He jumped in and quickly did down and back before I even got one length in. Oh and did I mention that he scared me because he was underwater for so long (half the length of the pool) before he popped up out of the murky water (the Y is having problems with the cloudiness of the water)? Well according to Rob & Clare's Travel Almanac, as well as verification with a few other sources, the fastest fish in the world is a sailfish. Apparently this dude was raised by a pack of them.

Schenley Oval

Tonight was my first experience running at the Schenley Oval since back in the ole days of running cross country for the CMU Invitational. (Note - Nathan lived in Pgh at the time when I ran there when we were seniors and he was late to the race and missed my finish. He tried to play it off that he had seen me finish, but he made it just in time to see Deb and that was it.) Anyhow - a bit of an intimidating experience there - lots of good runner and also lots of people in general. Almost like being at the airport with all of the people-watching!

Clear Sky

Today was a 5 miler. It wasn't overly exciting. It is really chilly in the morning and the sky is so clear. It's really pretty. We hung a right on the bike trail this morning and ran out about 2 miles, then came back. I left Ryan at the entry of the complex and then I headed into the residential area. It's crazy to look at some of these homes. They all look the same, or they rotate from one style then another style, then back to the first style. It's kind of weird. There are a LOT of homes for sale and a lot of foreclosures. Obviously people got into situations that they couldn't afford.

The marathon is coming up so quickly! It will be here in no time. :) Have a good day!

Hills? On a Long Run?

Its been so long since we've done hills on a long run, that Lisa and I had almost forgotten what it was like! Hills on a tempo run are so much different than on a long run after you've already gone 9 or 10 miles...interesting! Anyhow - it was a great run and my Sunday felt completely open since we got the run in Saturday a.m.

Searching for Diablo

Today was our 14-miler. We headed out around 7am, due to late night bowling with Ryan's co-workers (which was surprisingly fun). Ryan was equipped on the bike, I had my new fluorescent green shorts on, and we were off. To the marina we went via the bike trail/gravel farm land path. Everyone we saw greeted us with smiles and hellos, which I'm finding to be quite typical. On our way back, we saw the same guy that tripped with his dog earlier in the week! It was crazy, we were trying to figure out if it was him, and then the second he gave us that knowing look of "I've seen you around here before", it was validated. At least he didn't look too harmed from his accident. One couple we passed made a comment about how lucky I was to have a personal trainer. Ha! It was comical. I tried a different goo, one of the "gu" brands and it was fantastic! I was surprised. I might need to add them into the rotation. Overall it was an overcast day. We weren't blessed with seeing the sun shine on Mt. Diablo in the distance as we were last week. But at least I didn't add too much to my arm crease tans. Hideous.

I hope you two have/had a good run! It will be so good to see you both in just two weeks. :) I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll have a job by then! Wonders never cease.

Roundabout

This morning was my 6 miler. Ryan ran 3.5 and I finished on my own. It is starting to be very dark in the morning, and quite cool. The days are getting shorter, as summer flies away. We ran on the bike trail. We saw this man (kind of a big guy) running with his dog. Somehow the dog or the leash got in the way and the guy tripped! It was so sad! I bolted up to see if he was ok, I think he was just mainly embarrassed. He was wearing one of those knee braces and kind of fell pretty hard on it. I hope he's ok. After the bike trail I ran in some residential neighborhoods. Did you know that they have roundabouts for sidewalks? I'm not quite sure of the purpose, but they had plants in the middle of it. I guess it was overly necessary to plant them right there, forcing a roundabout to be created. Interesting. That was pretty much all of the exciting news from my run.

So cute, there are little boys on those scooter things outside the window. He just waved to his mom, cute.

Hopefully your weather in PA is treating you well!

Solo swimming downtown/Track workout with the hubby

Well, I absolutely agree. Swimming is probably my favorite workout after a long run; probably a lot having to do with the no impact. I think that there were more lifeguards and instructors than swimmers yesterday, shocking for diving in just after 5 pm. In the process of banging out a quick 800m, I almost died -swam too fast to breathe and inhaled a ton of water in the deepest part of the pool. After having a loud coughing spell, I moved on, avoiding eye contact with the guard.

Much to my surprise, Geoff asked if he could run with me this morning. So we set out down McClure to Commercial where I had clocked out a half mile loop around the block. It was fun to have someone run with me this morning and Geoff did pretty well even though complaining about being really out of shape - I think he might be getting nervous about running the 10k!

Megan - nice Chicago detail on the blogs - very technologically savvy!

Future Olympic Swimmer

No...I'm not talking about myself. I swam at the Baierl YMCA tonight and there was a dad there who was obsessively coaching his 8 year old (my best guess) to be a star swimmer. It was intense. Some of the comments I overheard were: "You have to shoot out like a torpedo from the wall." "No freestyle kick. We're working on breaststroke." "OK, 5 more times and then you're done." I wanted to tell the dad to just let him go play Marco Polo with the rest of the kids.

Swimming felt fantastic after the 20 mile run. It felt good to just shake everything out!

8 Mile Road

Well well...so my 20 miler started on Saturday morning at precisely 6am. Ryan was equipped with biker shorts (under his baggy shorts) and a full water bottle. I was weighted down with my three goos (which stands for ooz and are repulsive). Ryan mapped out our route on Thursday, and we drove it Friday. Parts of it were gated off, so we didn't get to literally see the whole course. It started off in a nice residential neighborhood, then we headed into farm land, wrapped around water, and returned on the same road we started on. There were acres and acres of corn on one side and tomatoes on the other. We headed straight out until the road forked at this marina and then we ran on the path which was right next to the waterway. It was really cool, beautiful and literally cool. It was abstolutely ideal running weather.

We noticed this time as we encountered the first fence that it had a no trespassing sign. We still hopped the fence. Why didn't we think about this last night, who knows. We continued on, past this scary home with gnarly dogs...where I picked up my pace even though I didn't feel like it, just to escape the scariness. Then we encountered another fence, this one looked electric. Ryan tested it out and it was cool, so we hopped it, lliterally. Then I noticed the ground I was running on was covered in sheep poo!! GROSS!! We continued trekking. Another electric fence, same as before and we jumped it. ANOTHER electric fence, and we jumped the non active electirc gate. Then a farm guy drove up to us and said, "This is private property and you really shouldn't be out here". Ryan handled it and the guy was really cool. I was getting a little bratty at this point. It was about the 13 mile mark. Ryan was very helpful with the water bottle and trying to keep my spirits up, which usually meant pure silence. We finally finished running by the water and headed back on 8 Mile Road, what we started out on. Sometimes the out and pack situations are helpful, but this wasn't. I couldn't see very much in the distance and it all just looked so far ahead. Ryan continued to remind me, only 40 minutes left. We somehow made it in a little under 3. I was so happy to have completed that one!

Once we returned to the apartment, I started to not feel very good and Ryan had stepped into the bathroom. My eyes started getting cloudy and it felt all dark and everything sounded hollow. I thought I was going down. I hollered to Ryan that I wasn't feeling very good...at ALL and he raced in with a towel and shoved a lemonade at me. I sat down, drank, and was brought back to life. :) It really wasn't that dramatic, but it was very odd. I hadn't felt that way after running before. I must have just had a really low blood sugar level.

That was my big 20 miler! So glad the next time we're running in the 2X's, will be in CHICAGO and I'll be with you two!!! :)

Oh-funny side note, I had a tan line on each arm where my arms creased from being at a 90 degree angle for so long. Sad. Not too noticeable though. :)

Let the Taper Begin!

Megan and I met at the trailhead at 6am this morning. It was pitch black and easily the COLDEST run we've had in a long time. It took until mile 4 for it to become light enough to know for sure that I could see my breath in the chilly 40 degree weather. The trail was slow this morning, probably due to very cold joints. Not a lot was seen in the first ten miles but on the way back we saw three deer right on the trail and a whole gang of TIT members. We are both a little stiff but pleased with the finish at just over three hours. I can't believe all the hard runs are over!!

In honor of our first long run without Amber - Megan ran in capris & Lisa blew more snot rockets than you can imagine!

Also, we booked our flights today (finally!) so we now are officially going to Chicago. We arrive in Chi-town close to noon on Friday and are flying out around 8pm Sunday night. ADJ - make sure that you get a booklet in the mail about the marathon. You need it to pickup your packet!