Silkworms

Okay, I know this doesn't really have to do with running, but when Gordon and I ran into each other on the greenway today, the proud papa pointed out that his daughter is in full color on the cover of today's Post & Courier (click here for the article). Her class is helping to save silkworms.

Cool.

Fartlek?

Trying to get a regular weekly fartlek session going either a Thursday am/pm or Friday am.
This will be a 1 to 1.5 hour session with some hills (i.e bridges, parking lots, stairs) some quicker flat efforts and some different surfaces (grass / sand when we can find it) to break up the ever present asphalt and build a little muscular endurance.

With the oncoming sure-to-be-toasty summer perhaps early mornings is not a bad idea - although this week I'm gunning for 5:30pm on Thursday from Holy Cow Yoga or alternatively later pick up about 5:50pm at Cannon Park (the dog park ?), cnr Rutledge and Calhoun.

Connecting pace between efforts will be easy - similar to our Sunday long run. Drop me a comment if you'd like to take part and what day time would best suit your schedule ?

Wind at our backs

Finally we had a favorable wind at CRBR. Everyone seemed happy with their times. We were nine seconds off a course record. We also were about 600 finishers shy of a record crowd.

It was great to watch everyone finish so strong. I'm glad I got my racing fix last weekend.

News from the front

Here are a few of your elites for tomorrow's Bridge Run. Cami's got some serious competition for top Romanian. Denisa Costescu (17:03 5K) will be running among the elites. Gordon will be happy to know that fellow Canadian, Sean Wade (2006 overall winner at Peachtree) will be among the master elites.

Good luck everyone. See you tomorrow.

Ultra Looming ?

If you are looking for a different (only slightly longer) challenge, Terri Hayes of Newberry, SC organises a most excellent low stress, free to enter, series of longer trail runs in South Carolina. First one up is April 17 (unfortunately I'll be taking an exam that day) then May 9th, June 6th, Sep 5th and finally Oct 3rd.

Have a look at her website here: http://ultrasontrails.com

Way to go Big Guy!

Congrats to John running a fast ING Georgia Marathon. He finished 24th overall and 3rd in his age group! WOW really impressive. Look forward to hearing about the race.

Georgia Marathon

Here it is, believe it or not. It has been a long training for John, who survived this (strange) winter' s cold, grueling 24 milers, and windy days over the bridge. He inspired and motivated us all with his actions. And let's be honest, actions speak better than a thousand words.

The time has come for yet another marathon. Please join me in wishing John a great race, a new PR, and sunny skies in Georgia this weekend. Knowing how determined and resilient John is, will certainly help me to get through my "hilly" 22 miler this Sunday.

Faster Still

Cami knocked 47 seconds off of her half marathon time from three weeks ago. She got another overall master's win at the First Watch Sarasota Half (click here). Trevor notched his sub 40 at the Flowertown 10K. The bridge run beckons. The winter training is paying off.

My marathon training is done. We'll see how that pays off this Sunday. A big thanks to you guys for the training support.

It's official I can register for the bridge run now!

Just got in from the Flowertown festival 10k and managed to pull together a sub 40 time to get a seeded time to the bridge run. Small crowd for the 10k much larger for the 5k. This is a double loop 5k course and since they let the 5k go first there was a lot of traffic the first time around the course. Overall a good race. 10th overall, 2nd in age group, 39:23. See you guys in the morning.

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight savings time begins this weekend. Don't forget to spring forward, loose an hour of sleep, and show up for our 7:00 Sunday morning run when it's a little bit darker. At least the weather won't be too chilly.

I'm a week out from my marathon, so I'll only be going about 8 miles or so. What about other folks?

Spring Has Sprung

It was a gorgeous day today, just perfect for our long, hilly runs over the bridge. It's been great to see and greet our Mount Pleasant running community. I continue to be amazed on how tight our running community is, and how folks help each other when times are tough. As I was going over the Mount Pleasant side of the bridge one last time, just around mile 19, two girls encouraged me with a "keep it up girl!" I was tired going uphill, but their encouragement was enough to keep me going strong at the end. Thanks, girls!

I just wanted to wish good luck to our racers. Trevor, go get 'em tiger! I know you can accomplish what you have in mind!

John, have a great Georgia Marathon!. You have done all the work, and I am sure that you will do great! Anybody else racing the next two weekends, have fun and enjoy!

Bridge Run Registration

Did everyone catch David Quick's blog entry (click here) about the Bridge Run registration? We're closing in on 30,000 registrants. 38,000 is the cap. Accounting for entry forms that are currently in-the-mail, the staffers might make the decision to shut down on-line registration to keep us from registering more people than we have race numbers.

Needless to say, there is a high degree of likelihood that we will not have walk-in registration at the Expo.

My advice is to register on-line.

Now.

Unexpected Help

We had cold but fairly calm weather on Sunday. Cami and I were out for our really long runs in prep for our marathons. We found some help in unexpected places. We had the full crowd (Trevor, Ricky, Rusty, Cami and me) all the way to the foot of the bridge. Right at the top, we ran into Blair, who stayed in contact with Cami for her repeats.

I figured I would run my remaining 15 in solitude. But as I approached the bridge for my return trip (about mile 15) I ran into Tom Mather and his running partner. "You heading back downtown?", he asked. "Yes, sir!" was my reply. I jumped in line and got a welcome (and needed) pick-me-up for all but the last four miles of my run.

It is great to have such a connected community of runners.