Random Marathon Thoughts

Mike and I did a little 6 miler yesterday. We did a 2 mile loop around Waterford 3 times. I wonder if anyone saw us going past so many times and thought we were nuts or something. Not sure, but it was a good run at about 8:40 pace and some good conversation. Actually some good steam blowing off from Mike after a tough day at work and I get to be the brunt of the steam flow.

I finally signed up for the WhistleStop marathon. What? I hadn't signed up yet??? Yeah, I know. If I don't need to sign up for a race quickly, I usually wait until as late as I can. Why is this? Well, I think it is because I have an out if anything goes wrong. Is is not like I wanted an out to not run the marathon, I always have wanted to, it is just that if an injury or a more important obligation came up, I could easily change my race to another one. This isn't like Chicago where you need to sign up 6 months in advance because it will fill up. Besides, there are many marathons all over the upper Midwest in the fall so if I needed to delay it a week or 2 or move it up the same, I would have no problem. I have also twice signed up for a marathon about 45 minutes before it started. Now that is major league procrastination! Not many marathons will allow you to do that.

I have already signed up for the Icebreaker Marathon's Gold Medal Challenge a month or so ago and that race is not until January, but they only allow 40 people to enter that and I was not sure how quickly it would fill up. So this got me to thinking. Have you ever been signed up for 2 or marathons at one time? I know some of you have and I know some of you are currently as well. I am now signed up for WhistleStop and Icebreaker. My record is once I was signed up for 3 marathons at one time. Talk about commitment!

If you are like me, getting this close to a marathon and I star thinking "What is the weather going to be like?" The weather can affect my plans a lot not only with the temperatures (Chicago 1997 HOT!), but also wind (Surfside TX 2009 WINDY!) and rain (Twin Cities 2008, WET!). Well, it looks really good for the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee this weekend. Lows of 43 and high of 59 partly sunny, 10 MPH winds from the west. The course runs mainly to the south. Sounds awesome to me. The 10 day forecast for Chicago shows some nice cooler temps staying until Sunday the 11th. Not sure about rain, too far out to tell but at least not hot like the last 2 years. And for the Whistlestop, 10 days out though, Weather.com says low of 36, High of 54 with rain. Well, I don't like the rain but the temps sound great! Things can change so quickly so we will all take what is given to us, but it is nice to prepare for what will be there.

Good Luck to my friends Chaz and Chris running this weekend in the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee. Chaz's goal is to run sub 2:50 (I know, totally insane!) and Chris wants to break 3:00 for the first time. I know he is ready to do it.