Rants, Reviews and Run-dezvous

Happy to be a finisher!! This will be my third marathon in 12 months! My first last November being this one that I am about to run again, the OBX marathon (3:49) and my second being the Shamrock in VA. Beach (3:43). I am hoping for one of two results at the crossing of the finish line on Sunday... An over all PR marathon time under 3:43 or.. And it's a big or, that I come in under last years OBX marathon time for a course PR. Looking back at my calendar, I was logging 30 to 40 miles a week leading up to this weekend. That has not been the case this year. While I have been active in many races (almost constantly) I have not been up to par with my training this year. Far too many long runs without the very important shorts runs in between. However, over all, I feel good about race day and my pace goals. Analysis of last years splits show a consistent pace in the 8 minute range up until mile 19, the dreaded wall we all know is waiting for us around that time frame! I did not hit t...

TUNA RUN 200 Hey, let's run a 200 mile relay race from Raleigh, NC down to Atlantic Beach, NC... And we'll take turns doing it with 6 people, we'll be an ultra team! (we would later find out that this would make all of us " super-cool ") These are the words I spoke to my friend and running coach Andy one morning during a training run and next thing you know we were putting a team together. Rachel and Kathy  The team, now named "OBX Ultra" was Andy, our friends Rachel, Kathy, Tim, Pete and myself. All of us completing an ultra distance race of 31 miles (50k) 1 or more times,  except Pete, who was perfect for the team and ended up being the fastest runner during our 30 hour event on October 19th and 20th, 2012, running an average pace of all 6 legs at 8 minutes and 6 seconds per mile, shaving 13 minutes off his his estimated total time. So basically what happens in a relay like this is each runner runs a pre assigned series of legs based o...