Post #2, I am on a roll . . .

Time for blog post number 2. I am at work right now catching up on what I was unable to complete this week. Need to be prepared for Monday morning. Our "Muzak" station is on a 50's music station and it is God Awful to listen to. I recognize about 1 in 7 songs. Maybe this will be a short post so I can get out of here and go home to the princesses who are napping right now.

This morning was the 15 miler inside The Pettit National Ice Center. It was rainy and mid 30's this morning and I wanted to stay dry today for the whole 15. My goal was to try something new today. usually when I run 10 or more miles, I take short 30 second walk breaks every 2 to 3 miles to give the legs a short rest, this time no breaks was the goal. Mike is trying o help me improve my late race endurance and the last 5 marathons I have petered out after 20 and my mile splits creep up and I lose out on my Sub 4 goals. Goal today: No Walk Breaks!

I was meeting Paul this morning and he showed up a little after me. I was just competing lap #1 (of 54) when he joined me. We started out at about 8:35 pace and that seemed pretty good. After a few laps, Paul decided to catch up his lost lap to me and go ahead and "catch up" to me. After quite a few laps he came up behind me and we were even on distance. After 5 miles, we dropped the pace to about 8:10 and kept going. Paul told me he had to leave soon but I convinced him to run at least 13.1 miles. I passes the half marathon at 1:48 and Paul left to go home. 7 Laps to go on my own. My legs were a bit tired from no breaks but I convinced myself to pick up the pace anyways.

By this time, there were speed skating time trials going on the oval. Helps break up the monotony to see these people skating a breakneck speeds. I finished the last 7 laps in a good pace and even dropped the last mile to about 7:15 which made me happy. this is the place I am running my next marathon so it is good to get the feel for the course. Hmmm, I guess I sort of ran the course 54 times today.

It will be an unusual marathon for sure at Pettit. About 94 or so laps and about 1/4 inch of hard plastic rubber right on top on cement. No so good for the legs but proceeds from this marathon are going to make a new running track in its place. Hopefully one more forgiving on the legs. I was checking their race website http://indoormarathon.blogspot.com/ and the course map is quite humorous. Here it is: O The race director has a sense of humor!!! The hard surface is the bad, but the good will be no rain, no snow, no sun, no wind, Temp. 50-55 degrees and an elevation change from the highest level to the lowest lever of 0 feet. This will be the flattest marathon in the history of the world.