es muy frio!

It is cold outside (in case you didn't notice).

I mean seriously.

This morning is 33 degrees, but feels like 27... not. ready. for. this. yet.

Last night during my run it felt like 27, but it was apparently in the low 40's... sunny, but very windy, so it felt in the range of the mid 30's. I got a new long sleeve technical shirt on the way home and decided to try it out. I wish I could say I was warm, but it took me 3 miles to "warm up". I wanted to run outside though to prepare myself for the possibility of it being that cold at the beginning of the marathon... it looks like it just might be... a low in the 30's Saturday night. But with the possibility of it getting up into the 50's, it should be great weather - pay no attention to the 30% chance of precipitation. These are odds I can live with. I haven't had to run any of my runs in the rain when the forecast was 30% or less...

On another note, I received an e-mail on an update to the marathon movie, "Land Of The Gods" Read below for the content:

For all of you, who have patiently been waiting for a "Land of the Gods" update, please be the first to visit the film's new site - www.marathonmovie.com - which went online today complete with our most recent trailer. Also, look for the film trailer on the main stage at this year's Chicago Marathon Expo as well as on the giant screens at the finish line. -Producers "Land of the Gods: The Legend of the Marathon"

Can't wait to see this movie!

remaining hopeful

I have been looking at the weather a lot lately. Depending on which website one goes to, it varies. I found one that has an optimistic, if not downright great forecast for the 22nd. I am prepared for anything at this point - having run in every condition, but I would prefer a day like this (as I am sure everyone else would). And I know I may have said Mother Nature redeemed herself this past weekend, but I take it back. She will only be redeemed by giving us great weather for Chicago!

With that said, I still need to acquire a new long sleeve technical shirt for the marathon, just in case. In fact a new short sleeve one would be good too. Most of my shirts are about one size too large for me now, but I have run in them all year. There's nothing like marathon training to help you drop the weight and keep it off! I certainly want a chance to try the new shirt out regardless of whether it is the same shirt I already have or not...

Another wild week at work - hardly the "preferred" tapering environment for me. I haven't run since Sunday. Monday I overslept and woke up at the time I was supposed to be leaving the office to go to an early morning meeting. I have never used so much profanity that early in the morning. I really should have been a sailor. It all turned out okay - I was actually only 30 minutes late - no harm done I suppose. Last night I was at work until 11pm... no rest for the wicked... ugh. I did sleep in until 6:30 this morning, so that wasn't too bad. I slept better than I have in a long time too - exhaustion will do that to you. I am truly hoping to get some quality sleep in the remaining, *gulp*, 10 days?!?! Shit! 10 days?!?! No time to freak out yet.

An easy 3 mile run this evening to keep the ol' legs loose and then a 5 mile MP run for Thursday... then it is my last "long" run for the training - 8 miles at MP. I am feeling good and just anxious to run this thing. I am like a race horse in the starting corral ready to go! But rest is what my legs and my mind need most right now.

My wife and I are making this event a mini-vacation of sorts. We are leaving Friday to go up to northern Indiana to stay at a B&B and then take the train in on Saturday afternoon to check into our hotel and go to the Expo. That night we will meet up with my training partners from Indy to go to Harry Caray's for our carb load dinner. It will be a lot of fun... regardless of the weather.

disaster, or how not to have a cookout

My cookout was a disaster. Okay, maybe that is an overstatement, but it was lame. It boiled down to "what can go wrong will."

It started with me forgetting to take the chicken and hamburger out of the freezer in the morning and not remembering until early afternoon... not a huge deal though. Guests showed up and I found out that one of them was allergic to cats (Andy) - oops I forgot to ask about this first, as we have two cats. Furniture had been vacuumed, etc. but I still felt bad.

Got the food on the grill a little late, but no big deal, we had plenty of drinks and snacks (wine, beer, soda, pita bread and hummus, chips and salsa, and veggies and dip) to keep our hunger in check. I kept checking on the food and it was grilling perfect. On one occasion though, I came back and found I had run out of propane... no problem, I had a spare tank in the garage. So I went and got it, hooked it up and the valve was not working - gas would not come out! So plan C went into affect, shoved the chicken and burgers into the oven to cook. The burgers finished before the chicken, so I had people who wanted burger go ahead and dig in. The rest of us had the side dishes, all of which were great! The chicken got done about ten minute later, but no one had any - just me. It wasn't that good - no grilled taste to it... The highlight was dessert - key lime pie and yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Very very good.

It turned out that Andy started having a reaction the the cats - he had a rash forming on his arms...that pretty much ended the get togther. All by about 9pm... as I said - lame.

Actually, it was good it ended when it did. I was still al ittle tired from the work week and I had to get up this morning to run my 10 miles at marathon pace. Needless to say, I did not sleep well and ended up sleeping in longer than expected and then I moved around the house slowly. I finally got myself out the door by 10am and I was glad I did...

What a beautiful day! Mother Nature has redeemed herself for this summer's hot, humid weather we all endured during our training. The skies were a prefect shade of blue and not a cloud was in the sky. The trees were sporting there new colors - quite breathtaking. I chose to run on the Fall Creek Trail today just for the reason of being among the trees and hearing the crunching of the leaves below my feet.

The plan was 10 miles at MP. I felt a little slow but I apparently my body said it felt like doing a tempo run... oops. I will have to say that it did not feel like an all out effort, so an 9:00/mile pace is going to feel easy for the marathon. Here are the highlights:

• 10 miles in 85:33 for an average pace of 8:33
• First half run in 42:47
• Second half run in 42:46
• A negative split to boot!

I still believe...

P.S. I received my confirmation bookelt in the mail yesterday! #35036

the week from hell...

It has been a rough week for me.

Not because of any pain from my 24 mile run on Sunday. In fact, I have felt great.

No, the week has been an extremely busy one for me at work. Early mornings and late nights. I am thankful that it is time to taper - it couldn't have come at a better time. The down side to this is that I am not getting any rest. I am actually exhausted and should be in bed. I need to relax, but before I do that I need to celebrate...

To Celebrate the taper, I am throwing a cookout for me and my friends. Nothing like Bob's Chili Dump - just a laid back get together with my fellow Indy Chicago Bound Runners. Andy, his fiance, Jason and his girlfriend are coming - unfortunately Brooke and her husband couldn't make it :( The weather promises to be perfect, so here's to week 1 of taper complete! Sunday I will get out for my 10 mile run. I plan on doing it at MP to see how it goes this time. I am almost nervous about the run because of how awesome the 24 miler was - I wouldn't want to have a bad run to break my confidence...

In 2 weeks I will be in Chi-town... can't wait!

i believe

After seeing the forecast for the weekend towards the end of the week, it was decided that we would run on Sunday (it turned out that Saturday was a perfect day too - no rain as had been forecasted). To put a postive spin on the decision, it will help us train our internal clocks for running in three Sundays from now.

My recovery run on Friday was pretty remarkable for me. I went out with the idea of going slow and taking it easy. I even felt slower than usual. The remarkable part was when I finished the run and looked down at my time...my average pace for the run was 8:57/mile. It really boosted my morale and I felt good about my running - something so simple changed my outlook on the marathon. A four hour marathon seemed possible.

Fast forward to Saturday night. I got home and there was a message from Jason on the answering machine... he wouldn't be able to run on Sunday... that left just me and Brooke.

This morning was a very cool, crisp autumn-like morning. We had already made plans to start early, so we got to the Monon Trail at 6am to start our run. It was desolate and dark in the area, for our safety we decided we would start out on the Monon first before heading out on the loop route. It was tough to see the actual path, but we could make out the edges of the pavement. Another thing that helped us see the path were the fire flies. They seemed to be randomly spread out on the path. It was like running through stars... kind of surreal. The first 6 miles was run out and back on the Monon and we ended up back at the truck where I ditched my long sleeve shirt since I had warmed up. Then we decided to forget the loop route, since neither of us cared for the downtown part and decided we could run 6 miles south to the end of the path and then 6 miles back and then finish the run with the same out and back we had run in the dark. We headed south and the sky was lightening up. We felt good on the run down to the turn around point. We stopped briefly to stretch and take a drink. My lower back was sore, but a quick stretch felt good. We head back north still feeling good, and made it to our next water stop where we stretched again and refilled our water bottles. A couple of miles later, we were back at the truck, a quick stretch, a bathroom break and a refill of gatorade into my water bottle and we headed out for our last 6 miles. With each stop it was harder to get going again, but we managed to push on. At the turn around point we stopped for one last stretch and drink and headed back. I could feel the urge to just get finished and our pace was picking up, but it felt good! I glanced at my watch at one point and our pace was almost a 9:00/mile! I didn't say anything at first, but a few minutes later asked Brooke how she felt. She said she felt good , so we kept up the pace. I called out our last mile and that is where we were starting to feel a little tired. When I saw that we ran the 23rd mile at a 9:03/mile pace we thought it would be best to back off the pace and cruise into the finish -- why risk blowing out a knee or something from pushing too hard? The total effort was relatively easy. I believe we can run this thing in four hours now -- I really do.

We finished the 24 miles and felt incredible! Better than the 23 miles we did two weeks ago and better than our last long run for last year's marathon training!

To celebrate our awesome run, we headed to the Monon Coffee Company for a refreshing beverage and some food. I had a 'loco-mocha freeze' and some pumpkin bread - it hit the spot.

I smell something now... no not my running clothes... this smells sweet. Do you smell it? Yep - it's taper. We made it. The three weeks we have all worked so hard to get to.

I am prepared.

I am ready.

I will see you in Chicago in three weeks!!!

Here are the splits if interested...

Average Pace: 9:56/mile

1. 10:07
2. 10:23
3. 10:09
4. 9:43
5. 9:48
6. 10:58 (this included a walk to the truck)
7. 10:09
8. 10:18
9. 9:58
10. 9:59 (got into a rhythm)
11. 9:52 (faster)
12. 9:48 (faster still)
13. 9:47 (still picking up pace)
14. 9:45 (can't slow us down!)
15. 9:39 (on fire)
16. 9:44
17. 10:11 (stopped to stretch and refill water)
18. 9:31 (back on track)
19. 10:26 (stopped at truck / bathroom break)
20. 10:00
21. 9:52
22. 9:34
23. 9:03* (amazing - felt great)
24. 9:25 (eased up at end - felt awesome!)