Sandy Runs

…is, apparently, running a half marathon on a whim. And also doing some training runs to try and get faster. Over the last two years, I've battled some running injuries. I refused to postpone my marathon dreams (achieving Titanium status in the Marathon Maniacs , and aggressively pursuing my 50 states marathon quest), so I kept running with injuries like plantar fasciitis, and a stress fracture to my tibia. That meant that I pretty much only ran on race days, without so much training in between races. I was able to maintain my endurance to go 26.2 miles, but my overall fitness and my speed (what I had) suffered. So, I'm now challenging myself to get into better shape, and get back to my PR pace. My four-fold approach: 1) Run every Tuesday night with Shirlington Running Club . I've been a member since the club's inception in 2009, but I've missed more of the weekly 3 mile runs than I care to admit. No longer. This is my primary run club and I have some good runni...

“Under the weather” as in being sick…not running in a thunderstorm like I did in Kansas . That’s how I ran my most recent two marathons. It didn’t feel great, but when I’ve already booked and paid for the trips, I’m not going to renege.   First up was the Wisconsin Marathon on May 3 rd . The day before we traveled, I started to feel sick with a sore, scratchy throat. On our flight day, I also felt poorly. Scot and I landed in Milwaukee Friday morning and spent a little time downtown on the river walk, finding the Bronze Fonz statue. Then we headed to Lakefront Brewery where I sampled some tasty beer and my first ever batch of fried cheese curds (yum). Then we headed to Kenosha for the packet pick-up and hotel check-in. I opted to stay in the hotel room and eat carry-out for dinner because of not feeling well. It was nice to have some extra down-time. I truly believe that taking it easy the night before helped my performance in the morning. Magenta with the Bronze ...

“There’s no place like home…” & ”I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…” were a few things we heard repeated over the weekend that Scot and I ran, with several friends, the Garmin Marathon in the Land of Oz . But really, we were just happy that we didn’t experience a tornado. I was particularly excited about this race weekend for several reasons: 1) the Wizard of Oz theme is fun, and we were going to dress in costume; 2) many Maniac friends were going to be there, and we were rooming with Abbi; 3) we were attending the pasta dinner with guest speaker Meb Keflezighi , less than one week after he won the Boston Marathon . On Friday, Scot and I were up bright and early to fly to Kansas City. We drove from the airport directly to Topeka so we could see the Kansas State Capitol . After photographing Magenta from all angles with the capitol dome, we headed to the Blind Tiger Brewery for some lunch and local craft beer. Then we were off to Olathe, where we’d check into our ho...