Sunday, 11.16 - 26.2 miles: 4:15:32

Night before 26.2

We are completely ready for tomorrow. We are finally relaxed, we feel confident and we are about to get the best sleep ever. Everything is set out, alarms set and the car has gas! All we have to do is wake up and go. We are waking up a little after 5:00am and hopefully, we get to the shuttle before 7:00am. After we get this one under our belts, I'm sure all the butterflies and uncertainties we've had will be a little more settle. We are both extremely hyped for tomorrow but neither of us knows exactly what to expect. Except pain!

There are 30,000 runners are registered for this Inaugural race. The news just said it's a record for the Rock 'n' Roll series. Truly, a historic event for us! This is going to be a huge event and I'm still not sure how they are going to get everyone through the streets, especially by the Alamo. Before I leave, for the two or three people who follow this blog, if you would like to follow us tomorrow, please go to Live Results at http://www.rnrsa.com/home.html. The Live Result tab is located at the top center of the page. Type in our first and last name or our bid numbers 16140 (L) or 16141 (A) to track where we are. We take off around 7:30 and we are expected to finish around noon. Wish us luck!

Thursday, 10.13 - 3 miles: Last Run

Last night was our last run before the marathon. We finished strong and as always, holding hands! Today is packet pick up. We head to the Expo to get our bib number, free t-shirt (the real reason why we do these types of events) and some other swag. Later tonight we finish our training by doing a two mile walk with our dogs and then we rest. As always, I’ve gone over and over in my head to ensure we have everything down to the last detail. We have directions to parking and we have our alarm clocks and back-up clocks set, check. It says the weather on Sunday morning will be in the low 40s. To keep us warm, we’ll wear throwaway long sleeve thermals and a toboggan, check. We need to get some extra Vaseline to rub down all over us to prevent chaffing and blisters as well as some band aids to cover my nips so they don’t bleed while wearing the thermal, check. Laura has a big smile and reassures me that we’ll finish, check.

Saturday will be spent relaxing and thinking nothing of the race. We plan on renting some movies, eating some carbs, get the oil change, see Laura’s parent’s new Great Dane and most importantly, relax. As far as after the race, we aren’t sure how well we will feel. There is free food, live music and 80’s rock legend, The Cult, is playing Sunday night. We both plan to take part in all of this but it all depends on how we feel. Monday is the day we’ll be hurting the most. We’ve both taken off from work and we plan on getting a massage. Next to finishing, the massage will be the second biggest reward! They say, after a marathon you should rest one day for every mile. For the first week, we’ll do no running after which we’ll slowly return. If we feel okay, then it will be time to start training for the next one!

Sunday, 11.10 - 11 miles: Got my new shoes on

Friday, we left volunteering at Saddle Light Center, a therapeutic horse back riding organization, at 7:30pm. We were scheduled to run three miles but felt it was too late, so we decided it would be best to mix it with our Sunday’s eight mile run. Saturday afternoon I went and bought a new pair of running shoes to replace my worn out ones. My old Glycerin 5 shoes started to make a squeaking sound and were pretty cashed. Don’t read too much into this but we’ve both put 355 miles on our shoes just training for the marathon and it’s suggested that you replace your shoes every 300-500 miles. I went with the Glycerin 6 but within the first 3 miles of Sunday’s run I discovered they had a more defined arch which gave a shoelace like feeling right at the arch of my foot. Since we were exactly a week away from the marathon, we thought it was best to stop the run and go replace them. I ended up getting the Defyance which is a bit lighter but still a neutral shoe.

Laura had bought a new pair of shoes prior to the marathon but they got stolen at the gym. So she ran in her old shoes which easily had well over 500 miles, plus were a few years old – just goes to show how strong of a runner she is! She finally replaced her running shoes on week 6 and will need to replace them before the next marathon. We have a love/hate relationship with buying gear. We always seemed to get over whelmed by what is worth buying and what is not. I usually stick to a few simple guidelines (i.e. what Laura will allow me to get away with) but really in the end, it takes experience to know exactly what works and what doesn’t.

Thursday, 11.06 - 5 Miles: Check List

We’ve got everything pretty much figured out. We’ve made some last minute adjustments as far as our GU and our Cliff Bars. Originally, we were going to carry them in my short’s pockets but after the 20 mile run, I realized the slapping on my thighs was too much. We tried safety pinning them on the outside of our shorts but still they flopped around. Then I read that safety pinning the GU packs to the outside of our waist band and then folding the packs over and into our shorts will eliminate the floppingness. If you place them right, there’s no raw rubbing. We tried this on our five mile run and it seemed to work great. A better test will be on Sunday’s eight mile run.

Anyways, here’s our long thought out check list of things that we must have on us during the marathon.
-A cheap throwaway long sleeve shirt for the first mile too keep us warm (will ditch them in trash can at one of the first water stations – expected temperature 52°/77°)
-Electrolyte pills in tinny Ziploc bag (goes in my small side pocket on shorts)
-One Cliff bar (fits in Laura’s back hip pocket on shorts)
-3 to 4 GU packs a piece (safety pin to waist band and folded in)
-Tinny digital camera (tied to shoe)
-One ChapStick (fits in headband of Laura’s hat)
-Laura’s Hat
-SunGs

Tuesday, 11.04 – 3 miles: Election Night

As we enter our first full week of tapering down, Laura and I ran three miles in 23.15. A 7.7 mile is considered clutch for us! Not too bad for a couple doing their first 26.2. We were both impressed but not exactly concerned since we are not running this marathon for time. We have all along trained for this marathon to finish together and within the amount of time allotted (seven hours). We project we will finish in about 4:30 but secretively, we want to finish in sub 4 hours.

Obama is now the president-elect and has defeated McCain to become the 44th president. As I watch the cover of tonight’s election and reflect back on the debates, the speeches, the highs and the lows, I look over at my sleeping beauty and think how fortunate we all are to live in a in this great country. Truly, all things are possible and I am proud tonight to witness such an historic moment. God bless America.

Sunday, 11.02 - 9 miles: RAIDER...POWER!

Tonight’s run was much needed after a bashful weekend. First, WRECK’EM TECH! We decided to run later in the evening since we were up late Saturday night. We completed the nine miles in our neighborhood and it was sad to see that most the house’s had already taken their Halloween decorations down. Several houses went boarder line overboard on their decorations that provided an unusual change in scenery. Laura and I ran a decent pace and broke a good sweat which was definitely needed. We are now 14 days away from 26.2 and boy the anticipation is sitting in. We really want to concentrate on keeping a consistent diet and absolutely no injuries. I’m going to void doing weights but I’ll continue to swim.

Mixing a social life with training hasn’t been too difficult for us. During week three when we had to run 10 miles, we were at the condo in Port A. The great thing about running is all you need is your running shoes. So we were able to run that Sunday along the shoulder of Highway 361. However, staying up late and not sticking to our normal diet, we certainly paid for it on that hot, steamy, no shade, mosquito infested run. This weekend, we had a party on Friday night for Halloween (Laura was partly cloudy with a chance of rain and I was a dark stormy night) and then we got together with friends to watch my beloved Red Raiders beat those t-sippers.