Thanksgiving 2008 Wash Park Turkey Trot

The weather turned out warmer than last year! YAHOO it was a large turn out as always for this run. I had just found out the night before that my friend Becky Marzano who has been training to run the Las Vegas marathon will not be able to run it! She has a left quad that is pretty messed up and a MRI proved that. She will be coming to LV still to scream for me on my hlaf marathon!

I ran hard at the turkey trot and pleased to report 4.0 miles in 38:42 which is about 9:44 per mile time! So I am getting faster! that was 5 min off last years time. I am also happy since I had to navigate a large crowd of walkers, kids, etc etc so learning how to do that is great experience for me at large runs.

Next Sunday at this time I will have run my 2 half marathon ever! I am hoping to do it in 2:30 or less. I know it will be better than my first half marathon which was in May 2008 and it was a time of about 2hr 45min and it was really hard! Since then I have increased weekly mileage and done more hill training which is helping me. My lonest run to day is 20 miles in about 4hr 14 min. I will back down my mileage in Jan and then come Feb-April bring it back up and on May 17 2009 I will return to the Colfax Marathon this time to do the full 26.2

I am also currently 183 miles away from reaching 1000 miles for running this year. My goals is to reach it by the end of December. I am wanting to do the Denver resolution run which is a 5K and have that round out my 1000 miles for the year! Last year I did 300 and some miles for the whole year. At the beginning of 2008 I had told myself all that I wanted to do was more miles than last year I NEVER set the goal of 1000 miles it just sort a happened LOL.

I am hoping to get my running times down and would like to become a 9 min per mile runner and also keep running long distances.

Hope you all have a great holiday season! I will report in after Las Vegas Marathon.

11 DAYS AND COUNTING

I am now 11 days away from running the Las Vegas half marathon. Last weekend I did my 20 mile training run. It was not like the other long runs I have done since I had to go at it alone. Becky is having issues with her quad and tonight she went and had a MRI done we are all praying that it is nothing serious. The 20 miles that I did alone was tough and I have learned how mentally hard it can be to do long distances ALONE!

What got me through it was that I on the same day there were friends going IMAZ and I thought if they can be doing a full ironman then I can be running 20 miles! So that is what helped me get through it all! The weather was great temperatures in the 50-60. I will run a turkey trot 4 mile event here in Denver the am of Thanksgiving morning alone with about 8000-10,000 other people, our weather is suppose to turn cold and maybe a few snow showers. LOVELY it will be just like last year DAM COLD. Still a great way to start off a grat holiday weekend.

NINETEEN MILES

Yesterday was the big 19 mile run. The weather was perfect for this long run. Becky and did the run toom me about 3 hr 40 min and I felt pretty good that I was able do a quick walk while she used the restrooms. I still find it hard to believe that I am running that far LOL.

Best part was when we was done and had cooled down then it was the drive to chatfield gravel pond where we walked into the water and did what is now called the Colorado ice bath! It was tough but my legs feel better today then they have after any of our long training runs. I also had a full hour massage tonight OH THAT FELT SO GOOD and it was so needed.

ANOTHER LONGEST RUN

Tomorrow is longest run to date willbe 19 milessssssssssssssssssss! then next Sat it will be 20 miles and that will be the longest I run till I kick back in serious training miles most likely come Feb. Dec 7th I will be attending the Las Vegas marathon to do my 2 half marathon ever.

I feel very comforatble with doing 13 even thought many have told me I am good to go on 26.2 if I should decide to change my mind once I get there LOL. I truly want my first full marathon to be in Denver where I live, work and train my butt off. I am very thrilled that I can even run these trainng distances but learning lots and I hope someday I can use this knowledge to inspire others.

I have many fellow triathlete friends and runners that have been awesome in giving me advice and pointers thank you all so very much!!!!!!!!

10K PERSONAL BEST

It was the perfect conditions for my 10K today. I did this race last year as my firt 10K ever plus it is well know that this 10K is one of if not the toughest in the Denver metro area.

Last year my time was 1hr 11 min and I was pleased since back then I had never done that distance let alone on a tough hill course! Today I came in at 1hr 2 min! pulled 10 min miles! I remember a lot of the hills so I knew what was going to be coming up! I paced myself and I also did not try and analyze my running during the event. I did what I was suppose to do and that is RUN RUN RUN!

I would say at mile 4 it started to seem a bit tough since you still have 2 miles to go and there is up and down still LOL. Once to the top of the hill and I knew I was head towards the finish I just kicked it in! I am learning that my daily work outs are paying off and learning to push myself harder and that the body can endure! The temperatures were perfect in the upper 60's and a lite breeze. The treats afterwords were great! I will be back at this one next year with a goal of getting it under 1 hr and I know I will do it!

I am learning so much about the mental part of running and I am loving it