Sandy Runs

California was not a new marathon state for Scot or me, but we traveled west anyway, to run this iconic city in the San Francisco Marathon .  Official race pic that actually turned out well; and the pics were free! I hadn’t been to San Francisco in years, so I was excited to return and to run across the Golden Gate Bridge . We stayed downtown near the Embarcadero with Eddie and Nilda. The view from our hotel room with Magenta the Road Trip Flamingo Saturday was our crazy day. We had to leave home at 3:00 AM to drive to Dulles and catch our 6:00 AM flight. Thank goodness it was direct. We were able to get a little sleep on the plane to make up for not sleeping the previous night. We landed just before 9:00 AM and headed to the BART to get downtown, but not until after dropping way too much money on way too much chocolate at the Ghirardelli shop in SFO airport. Our first order of business was to check into our hotel, and then meet up with my friends Antoni...

I wrote last time about my lack of motivation and my pitiful training . I've reset my goals and hope that by requiring less of myself, I'll be able to deliver. And then, I can gradually ramp things up. For too long, I've been running so many races that I didn't really NEED to train in between them in order to maintain my endurance. I could go out and finish a marathon any day you asked me. The problem was that I couldn't do it fast, certainly not anywhere near my best, and my general fitness also suffered from lack of training. But I made it out to Alexandria VA's  Bell Haven Park & Marina last Saturday to run 9 miles on the Mount Vernon Trail with my training group ( Friends & Fitness ). Amy picked me up and we carpooled together. It was an overcast day with little sun, and a decent temperature, but quite a bit of humidity. At the beginning of the season, I was trying to do these training runs at a 10:00/mile pace, but my body was so used to a slowe...

I  posted some training plans recently , and I haven't been able to live up to them. It's not that I can't do it physically; it's that I haven't been there mentally. As we all know, it’s difficult to change more than one habit at a time. In the spring I set up a very aggressive (for me) schedule that would have me running three nights a week with a long run (or race) on the weekend, plus strength exercises every day.  My kitten Boo with my new Altra Paradigms, just because it's cute; she loves to smell our running shoes! It wasn’t long before I found the schedule overwhelming, and feeling like I was failing if I missed a workout. And then one missed workout would lead to two missed workouts, and so on. I did not maintain that schedule for more than a couple weeks. Since then, I’ve tried to add different strength or core programs into my routine, and they still didn’t become routine. I was skipping more of my running nights than I care to admit. I blamed...

I had registered well in advance to run the inaugural Pacers Freedom Four , and then we found out that the Grant-Pierce Indoor Marathon was to be held the same day (6/29/14). This was surprising, because last year the GPIM was in mid-July when Scot ran it and I volunteered. So, I was going to do another "two in one day" race events, like I did back in March . However, this time I would be running one event and then volunteering at the next. First up, the Freedom Four was a 4th of July themed race, even though it took place the weekend before the holiday. This race evolved from a 5K that used to be held in Fairfax VA on July 4th. The new race was held in Arlington VA, but I don't think Pacers was able to get a permit to close the roads on the holiday. The course was the same as the St. Patrick's Day themed Four Courts Four Miler , and in fact, the concept was exactly the same. We started outside Irelands Four Courts , ran a mile downhill, a mile of flat with some mi...

June 21 st was a big day for Scot. We traveled to Duluth MN where we ran Grandma’s Marathon and Scot completed his 50 th state. I had been to Grandma’s in 2012 with Elizabeth, Michelle and Sarah, and Minnesota was the only state I held over Scot. No longer.   At Grandma's 2012 with Elizabeth and Michelle. We missed the start for the 5K, so we had beer instead! The decision to return to Grandma’s was mainly because of what worked well on Scot’s calendar, in relation to other states he needed to finish up, and also because it’s a well-managed race that draws a lot of Marathon Maniacs and 50 States Marathon Club members. Scot and I arrived at MSP early, and immediately took our rental car to the Minnesota State Capitol for the obligatory photo with Magenta. Just for fun, we earned a nice parking ticket from the city of St. Paul. Afterward, we returned to the airport to pick up Abbi and drive together to Duluth.   Magenta the Road Trip Flamingo at the Minne...