Race Info

For information about the Hudson-Mohawk River Marathon, go to this website:

http://www.hmrrc.com/index.cfm?method=Race.mhrm

There is a link to an extremely detailed "spectator guide" for any ambitious soul who wants to keep tabs on my progress.

Unfortunately, both Trevor and Chris are out due to recent injuries (cartilage tear in Trevor's knee, stress fracture in Chris's foot). Trevor is still planning on going to cheer myself, Bob, and A-Low. With the loss of Chris, I become the only marathon newbie of our group.

20 miles of fun

Unfortunately my extremely busy schedule has prevented me from doing much blogging. I do feel compelled to note, however, that I successfully completed my 20 miler this past Sunday. My good friend Bob drove out to my apartment in Hudson. We hit the roads, travelling through downtown Marlborough, hitting up parts of Southborough, then back roading it into Westborough. We stopped at my parents house in Westborough for some rehydration and a short break, then hit the roads again and ran all the way back to Hudson. We brought maps, fuel belts, and powerbars with us, all of which came in handy!

Bring on the marathon.

Solid 12

This weekend's long run was light ... only 12 miles. This week I prep for my hardest workout of all next weekend ... a 20 miler.

19 reasons to cheer

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I've been so busy and tired that this will be short. Yesterday I ran 19 miles without the major difficulty I've experienced with my long runs on the past. I credit this to Power Bars and Hydration throughout, which was really sustaining. I also took ibuprofen about halfway through to help with my knee pain. I don't feel bad doing that on the long runs. We're getting close.

Busy

Now that summer is over and I'm back teaching (for those of you who don't know, I'm a high school history teacher), I've found that my schedule has become much much tighter. This was expected, of course, but it's difficult nonetheless. Strangely, one of the things that's most hampered my training has been the fact that I'm assistant cross country coach this fall for the school. On the surface this seems like a good thing, and if my goal was simply to stay active and be in shape, then running a few miles with the kids every day would be wonderful. The problem is, I've been running a few miles with the kids, then realizing that I didn't do enough of a workout, and so when I get home I head out for more. This makes for disjointed training. Besides, I don't really like running in the heat of the afternoon, which is when we have practice.

As a second year teacher teaching a new course, my outside of school schedule has been predictably packed with planning, and so finding time for runs has been a struggle. Today (Labor Day) I did a 13 miler and felt okay. Next week my long is supposed to be a 19. We'll see how that goes. My knee hurts on every long run. But during day to day activities, it really doesn't bother me at all. It's strange.