Major Bummer!!!

I've been having some really great runs lately.   I've been feeling great.  The strength training at Snap Fitness has been going well.    I was really excited for the Shamrock Shuffle 8K today.   Unfortunately mother nature had other plans.  We got dumped on with about 6 inches of snow overnight and the major snow was just hitting Chicago right when we needed to drive the 50 miles to the race.   I of course said we could make it.  We got in the car and made it about 5 miles before I realized that this was really stupid.   The roads were not plowed.  Cars were spinning out. I gave it up and we came home.    I'm ticked.   Oh well.   There will be other races.    Next up is a 10K on April 19th and another 10K on the 27th.    Hopefully the snow will be gone by then!!!   Chicago sucks!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I survived the Boil Order!   I had my first great run in awhile on Saturday.  5 miles and felt really great.   I definitely need to work on my nutrition and what to eat before and after runs to help me run strong and recover quickly.

Back to why I'm running Goofy.  If you remember I said the last marathon I would run is Chicago.   That lasted about a year until I got the itch.  Marathoners know that itch.   It gets in your blood you have to do it again.   I decided to enter the lottery for the New York Marathon in 2007.  I figured no way would I get in so I better sign up for Chicago to have a back up.    As luck would have it I got into NYC on my first try.   Now what do I do.  I'm registered for both, Chicago and NYC,  4 weeks apart.  I figured why not do both.  Hal Higdon has a plan for running a marathon 4 weeks after one so I figured it can't be too bad of an idea.  Ha Ha!!

Chicago 2007,  you remember right.  90 degrees, 100% humidity or something like that.   I'll post a link to my full race report later.   It was a nightmare.  I got shutdown around mile 16 and it ended up being 18 miles after I had to walk back to the start.   Good thing I had NYC to look forward to in just 4 weeks.

NYC 2007,  wow,  a great time.   This is a fun one.   I totally hit the wall at mile 19 and struggled until about 22 when the banana kicked in.    Finished in 6:22:59.   I swore that was it.  Made my husband  promise to remind me what I felt like at Mile 19.  

I got the itch again.   A year later,  I'm noticing a pattern here.  What to do?    I love Disney and would love to do a Marathon there.   It's in January which means training in the cold and over Thanksgiving and Christmas which are big vacation times for us.   I'm only going to do this once ( yeah right)   so I may as well do Goofy!!!   I need all 3 of those medals baby!   I signed up on the first day available and am now scared to death!   13.1 miles and then 26.2,  I must be nuts!!!!!

Enjoy St. Patrick's Day.  I'm off to find some Green Beer!

Boil Order!!

We had fun in Fox Lake the last two days.    Woke up to no water yesterday.  Apparently someone ran into a fire hydrant and it emptied all of the water in town.  How does that happen??  Only in Fox Lake!   So we were called and told that we were under a boil order.  What the heck is a boil order???!!   I googled it of course.    It is quite complicated actually.   We ended up going out for dinner last night so we didn't have to deal with boiling water to make dinner.   Then today they said it was all clear and we were free to use the water normally.  My friend Liz and I were wondering now what,  do we need to empty our hot water heater?   Ice maker and water lines in the fridge?   Very confusing.   I of course google it again.    Yes to the ice maker and water line but apparently if you crank up your hot water for a half hour it will kill any bacteria in the water.   Things you learn!!!

Back on track

I got my 4 miles in on Saturday.    I was very sore afterward.   But it is a good sore!    Back at it again on Monday for 3 more miles and hit Snap this morning for my strength routine.   

So why am I doing this crazy Goofy thing.    I started running back in 2005.   I signed up for the 2005 Chicago Marathon before I had done any other races.   Sure I ran cross country in high school but I can honestly say that I never liked running.   When my best friend from high school found out I did a marathon she was shocked.  She would always drag me to go on runs to be ready for the meets.    I never thought I would run a marathon.   I raced bikes in college and loved that.   Unfortunately after college I fell out of the workout routine.  I married my wonderful husband and fell into an easy routine of eating too much and having too much fun. Both are fine but you have to still workout!!!  So the marathon seemed like a good goal.   I am goal oriented and task oriented.  If you tell me to run a certain distance on a certain day then I'll do it!    I used Hal Higdon's Spring training program and then his Novice Marathon program.  30 weeks total.     I finished the Chicago Marathon in 6:06:15 and swore I would never do that again!

This is getting pretty long so stay tuned for more fun with marathons.

Still Sick!!

Well so much for being better.   I ended up with a horrible cold again and the stomach bug did not go away.   Two antibiotics and two weeks later I am finally back on track.   I hit the treadmill yesterday for 3 miles and it was tiring.   Very tiring.    Today I went to Snap Fitness and did 3 miles again on the treadmill and my normal strength routine.  It had been over a month since I did any strength training and it felt it.   I am very sore now.  I hope to get in at least four miles on Saturday.  I think a PR in the Shamrock Shuffle is out of the question.  But I guess miracles can happen!   I will hopefully be able to post more regularly.  Next up will be some background on myself and some ideas for training.   Stay tuned.....