Sandy Runs

The morning before the Marathon de Paris, the race organizers hold a 5K called the Paris Breakfast Run. I’ve seen this kind of thing at other big, international marathons. It's an opportunity for the marathoners to get in a nice shakeout run, and for friends and family members to join in. This one was an untimed race, but lots of fun. Abbi and I ran the breakfast run. We had to wear our breakfast run shirts to indicate that we were registered participants, as they did not have race bibs. Ready for the Paris Breakfast Run, across the street from the back of the Louvre The start was behind the Louvre. Runners from all over the world congregated, each carrying a mini flag from their country. We talked to some Maniacs we found, including my new friend Diane, whom I met in Rome. Runners congregating near the start of the run; there were a lot more than you see here Chris (Diane's friend), Diane, Abbi, me...getting ready The morning was sunny and beautiful. We ra...

I ran the Maratona di Roma in Rome, Italy on April 2 nd . This was an add-on to my trip to run the marathon in Paris. I registered for Paris first, then learned that Rome’s marathon was one week prior; it was an easy decision to start my trip to Europe early and do both races. I had been to Rome before, so I had an idea of what I was getting into with the course. Rome Marathon backpack "Lo Zaino"; the design All Roads Lead to Rome was also on the back of the race shirt I left for Rome on Thursday, March 30 th , which was my birthday, and arrived on Friday. After taking the train from the airport to the Roma Termini train station, I found my way to my hotel on the Via Nazionale and got checked in. From there I went straight to the expo, several stations away on the subway. It was a beautiful day for the walk to the expo building. I picked up my bib, race shirt and souvenir backpack, which was also to be used as our gear-check bag. Most of the vendor booths were for ...

It's my birthday today, and I just received a great gift (well, a gift I need to pay for): I was selected in the Marine Corps Marathon  (MCM) lottery. Therefore, I'll be running my 3rd Marine Corps Marathon in October. I've never done any marathon more than twice, so this will be a record. Some people may wonder why I haven't run MCM more times, after living just a couple miles from the starting line for several years. In fact, I've run the MCM 10K more times than the marathon. Some years I had other race goals, or injuries, so I chose not to run the marathon. I ran MCM in 2006 and 2015. And 2017 will make three. I'll still need to run MCM two more times to qualify for the Runners Club, which will allow me early entry (no more lottery) for any future MCM. We'll see how that goes. For now, I'm just happy that I'm in for 2017. It will be my first MCM since moving to Columbus, so I'll need to book travel. Southwest usually has good deals, so I...

I did last week's laundry and noticed that almost everything in it was green. I did St. Patrick's Day runs with two different running clubs, a happy hour on the actual St. Patty's day, and a race the day after. On each occasion I wore one or more green garments. Because the weather was cold, I also had to layer on the green. Green Run #1 - Tuesday, 3/14/17 The Columbus Westside Running Club hosted its second annual St. Patrick's day run on our regular night. It was the season's first run in daylight, thanks to the time change. But even though it was light out, it was still freezing cold; temperatures were in the low 20s F, and windy. Club members came all decked out in their St. Patty's Day green, and if they didn't have any green, Tracy gave them some sort of green novelty to wear. After a group photo, we were off to do our usual laps around Westgate Park. It was a slow, easy recovery run for me, having just run a marathon three days prior. CWRC ...