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.