A PR Like No Other

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Last night was the big ending to the Fleet Feet Tuesday Night Group Runs. It was an end of the year race, with official race numbers, official course with police at every corner keeping the roads clear, and official timing. It was obviously low key but was also very well done with a great attendance. Age group winners got some really cool prizes, many of which were a new pair of shoes...... no I didn't win my age group.

We have a winner!

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Thank you to everyone that stopped by and entered the recent CSN Giveaway.  The official end of the contest was yesterday, but because I had a race to run last night I didn't pick the winner till today.  With that being the case, and because I loved her comment, I did let Kandyce's comment this morning slip in.

There were 27 official entries, 26 blog posts and one e-mail that I did receive stating that they were a follower.  Not sure if they meant that they were a follower of my blog, or of my Facebook Fanpage, but both count :)

It's All Downhill From Here

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Time sure flies by.  I can't believe that I have less than three weeks till race day.  It seems like just yesterday that Sony Electronics was contacting me wanting to sponsor me in a fall marathon.  At that time I was still planning on running the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon like I did last year.  Little did I know that I would find it to be sold out by the time I went to register.

November 13th and the Soldier Marathon is just around the corner and I have run the last of my 20 milers.  It is all down hill from here.  It is amazing the journey that I have been on these past few months.  I have had ups and downs along the way.  Times when I thought I was going to be able to crush the 4 hour barrier and other times when I was wondering if I was going to even make the starting line.  It was only just a month ago when I injured my calf and was wondering if I would be able to recover in time to run the marathon, much less the half marathon in the 13.1 Marathon series when it came to Atlanta.

Coach Wood Invitational

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The Cross Country season is drawing to a close and it just keeps getting better.  This is how it is supposed to be isn't it?  The last official regular season meet for my daughters was this past Saturday when they ran the Coach Wood Invitational at Gainesville College. The day was an awesome day for running.  It was a little cooler in the morning for us spectators, but by the time the running started the weather was great.

The course is a two loop course and is laid out pretty good, especially for the spectators.  We are able to watch the runners at multiple locations, especially if we want to do some running ourselves.  The starting was laid out a bit wrong this year and it ended up putting a protruding manhole directly in the path of some of the runners at the start.  Of course one of the lucky teams was Brookwood.

Have you ever got lost on a run?

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I can't say that I have ever got lost on a run before, at least not to this extent.  When I stepped foot out of bed this morning I didn't realize what was awaiting me.  Would I still have gotten out of bed and gone for this same run?  Sure.  Would I have changed a few things about it?  Yup!

This morning was going to be a little bit different than most morning runs for me.  I dropped my daughter Payton off at school for Cross Country practice this morning at 5:40 and just headed to work to run there since I needed to get 10 miles in and didn't want to break the run into two 5 mile runs like I did last week.

Time For Another Giveaway!

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I know when you think of 26.2 Quest you think of running.  You think about reading long wordy blog posts with a few wisely chosen pictures interspersed, but mostly you just think about me :)  OK, maybe not.  I do know you come by to read about running.  Today you may have stopped by to read about my daughter's latest achievements, but the day before you probably came by to read about how bad my latest long run went.  Well, today we are going to jump off of the running bandwagon briefly to give you all a chance to win something.  Don't worry, there is a running twist to it so don't think you are going to get off that easy.

1,000 Miles and Counting

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I knew it was coming soon, but I totally missed when it finally showed up.  This year the 1,000 miles came a little quicker than last year.  Last year I didn't hit the 1,000 mile marker till the first week of November, however this year the achievement was made The first weekend in October.  If you would have asked me even a couple years ago if I would have ran a total of 1,000 miles ever I would have laughed at you in disbelief, but now I am nearing a total of 3,000 miles since I started logging.

Sometimes 20 Miles Is More Mental Than Physical

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I am not ready to get into a debate on whether physical or mental wins out more, but yesterday my 20 mile run was more of a mental challenge than it was a physical challenge.  Please don't read this the wrong way - I am not by any stretch saying is was physically easy, I am just saying that physically it was a done deal, but mentally I didn't want to even start because I just knew I was going to fail.

Three weeks ago I ran my first 19 miler of this marathon training schedule.  It was a challenge, but I don't remember thinking that I wouldn't make it (maybe I have already forgotten)  During that run around 13 miles I started to feel a tightness in my left calf.  I continued my run paying close attention to make sure it didn't get any worse.  It turned out to be the wrong decision and I should have quit at the first sign of something not being right.  (you can read more about it here) After all was said and done I ended up with two weeks of a lot of rest...... right in the middle of marathon training!  Not only was it right in the middle of marathon training, but was the two weeks around what was supposed to be my first 20 mile run, as well as the two weeks leading up to my mid-training half marathon race, the 13.1 Atlanta.

Another Two PR's - But Not For Me

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I can't believe the Cross Country season is almost over again.  I look so forward to this time of year and then it seems that it is all over as soon as it starts.  Now, sure, I would like to get my Saturday's back to do really important things like sit around, eat, and sit around some more...... but there isn't many other things I look forward to like I do Cross Country meets.  This is quite obvious when you find me driving 6 hours ONE WAY to watch my daughter's run.

This past Saturday my daughter's both ran in the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, NC just outside of Raleigh.  This was a very competitive meet, so much so that the winner of the boys and girls races both set new course records at 15:00 flat for the boys, and Aisling Cuffe won the girls race setting a new course record of 16:40 and was almost a full minute in front of #2.

13.1 Marathon - Atlanta 2010

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Today was the second running of the Atlanta edition of the 13.1 Marathon series.  I have been looking forward to this race since I ran it last year and set a new Half Marathon PR....... that is, until I injured my calf just two weeks ago.  Once I injured my calf I released any hope of another PR this year and just focused on getting my calf back to 100%.  I wasn't sure until about a week ago that I would even be able to run it.  I decided then that I would run it for fun, and intentionally take it easy since I didn't know if it would start acting up, and didn't want to risk re-injuring as I enter the last month of marathon training.

The morning started early, as most race mornings do, and we hit the road at 5:30 to make the trip down I85, over to Peachtree Road, and into the closest parking place we could find near Oglethorpe University.  I rode down with my neighbors who were also running the race.  The morning was very cool at 55 degrees, which felt even colder in Atlanta with the wind that didn't seem to let up all morning.