Sandy Runs

It really was that good! I've run a lot of races, and the Chicago Marathon , at 40,000 runners, had the logistics down. This was possibly the best-organized race I've run, and not only that, but the course was great, the spectators and volunteers were awesome, and it was a lot of fun! Scot's picture of the medal My mom is from Chicago, and I have an affinity for the city. Unfortunately, I hadn't really been there for a visit in several years. I've been through both airports, and been close by in St. Charles IL for the 2012 Fox Valley Marathon , but I hadn't actually spent any time in the city in over 10 years. Scot and I decided to enter the lottery for spots in this year's Chicago Marathon, and we got in! We flew in on Saturday morning and home on Monday morning. That didn't leave time for much other than the race expo and the race itself, but we stayed in The Loop at Hotel Allegro to be close to the action and walked almost everywhere we need...

Now that the end of my 50 states marathon quest is in sight (I’m on target to finish in Oregon at the Newport Marathon in May 2015), I’ve been thinking of other goals. Of course, they all involve travel, and those expenses add up. Here are some ideas I have for marathon goals beyond the 50 states. The 7 Continents There are actually a good number of marathoners who have completed a marathon on all 7 continents. I’ve done two: North America and Europe. Most of my marathons have been in North America, and two have been in Europe. Getting the other continents will require time, money and planning. I don’t expect to complete this goal any time soon, but it is a goal of mine with an open-ended timeline.  Only 5 continents to go! For Australia, there are several marathons to choose from, and I haven’t done any research yet. For Africa, there are also several marathons, and most of them require participating with a tour operator. One that I wanted to do, Haile Gebrselassie Maratho...

The Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) is one of the favorites among runners, and it's coming up in a few weeks. Here, I'll recap my previous years either running or spectating in this awesome event. Marine Corps Marathon 2004 I was a newbie runner, having just started training for my first marathon with the National AIDS Marathon Training Program (which no longer exists) in Washington DC. It would be the first of three marathons in which I trained with the group and raised funds for DC's Whitman-Waker Clinic . I was so new that I hadn't even run a 5K race at this point, but I was excited to go out and be a spectator at one of the official AIDS Marathon cheer stations. It was a really hot day. I was sweating as a spectator, so I can only imagine how tough it was for the marathoners, especially the back-of-the-packers who were out there for several hours. I stuck around to watch everyone run or walked by until the sag wagon came through. It was my first spectating experi...

I think it was my mom who told me about the Loch Ness Marathon several years ago. She makes it her business to know about a lot of things, so she learned about this race before I did. It was added to my marathon bucket list immediately. I had always wanted to see Loch Ness in hopes of finding Nessie. What better way to see many miles of the Loch than by running alongside it for hours? But it took several years before I finally made it there. Scot and I spent 5 days (not nearly enough) in Scotland with two goals: 1) run the Loch Ness Marathon; 2) visit the towns where he lived as a child. Since this is a running blog, I'm only focusing on the marathon here, and sharing lots of photos. Loch Ness Marathon course map; we ran from south to north into Inverness Elevation map does NOT give you a real concept of how hilly the course was; that middle section was NOT flat; just magnify all the little hills and you'll get the idea My first introduction to Loch Ness came on F...