Run Run Away

Question:

Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one. Event Name: Calgary Marathon – AKA 39th Annual Stampede Road Race Time: 7:00 a.m. Distance: 42.2K Location: Calgary, AB, Canada Host: Calgary Road Runners Club Benefit: Special Olympics Calgary and Renfrew Educational Services Course Layout: Out and back Course Terrain: Officially flat; actually a few small hills at the start, gradual climb to mile 14 then slope back down. Weather Conditions: Very nice. 47F/8C; overcast, light breeze, very (!) low humidity Sociological (Fashion, fighting, foolery, and food):    Fashion: WIDE variety from singlets to jackets. Not much in the way of coordinated attire.    Fighting: None that I saw (except for the banana incident below)    Foolery: Not much. A lot of chatting for the first 10 miles.    Food: Very little by the time we finished. Susan rassled a banana away from a small child. (I’m just kidding.) Personal Time: 5:20:30 Personal Pace: 12:14 Personal Place Overall (males): 477 out of 491 Personal Place Age Group (males): 78 out of 78 # of participants completing the course: 750 (940 had registered) Winning Time: 2:35:56 Last Finisher: 8:01:35 Event URL: http://www.stampederoadrace.com Results URL: http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2003/run/stampm.htm Pictures: http://curly.cis.unf.edu/pics/sports/calgary03/calg03.html Comments:    We had debated about which of the two approaches we wanted to use for our first marathon – stay at home for comfort and familiarity or travel to make it more special. Initially, we had decided to stay at home. Somewhere along the way I got a wild hair and suggested that we get out! Susan has a sister in Calgary. It was Stampede time (their rodeo and civic celebration). Plans to run the Calgary Marathon started taking place before I had a chance to reconsider my rash suggestion. The Calgary Stampede is a very nice celebration with the rodeo, a real, old fashioned parade, and pancake breakfasts everywhere you looked. The marathon is part of the Stampede Road Race (last year it was called the Stampede Roadeo Race). The new name is unfortunate in that everyone we asked (all locals) thought that the race was an automobile race. We were told that the Calgary Marathon is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) marathon in Canada. The expo was fun but much smaller than we expected. The weather was amazing – low humidity and low temperatures in the upper 40sF. I wimped out and got a long sleeved shirt for the start and planned on discarding it at a water station when I got warm. The shirt over my singlet was nice since the temp at the start was 47F. Susan’s niece (let’s call her SN) made a surprise visit to see if we’d actually go through with it. She and Susan’s sister (let’s call her SS) ended up acting as our support team. Without them the run would have been much more difficult and much less fun. Their role can’t be overstated. SN dropped us off so we could leave a bag at the runner’s tent and make our way to the start line. The crowd was pretty small and seemed to have quite a few newbies since we had to keep moving back to be at the back of the group. They used a shotgun as a start cannon. We were off! Well, not really. we waited for a while and then walked to the start line before we could start running. It was a small crowd but the entire route was pretty narrow. Once we got started running there were some nice surprises. The course was marked off in K (new to us) so the markers came a little faster than we were accustomed. The course wound through the zoo where I found a restroom and took advantage of no lines. We then came across the first of three small hills in the first several miles. None of them were troublesome but they were bigger than anything we have in Florida. About this time I realized that I was hot and was preparing to discard the overshirt. Another surprise occurred when we rounded a corner and there was our support team. How SS got through the traffic I don’t know. SN offered to take the shirt and ran along with us for a little bit. SN hadn’t done any running (a lot of mountain hiking but no running) and was wearing day-hikers. She still kept us with us while we talked. After a while SN went back to SS while we continued toward downtown Calgary. During the first ~8 miles we also talked with other people around us (well, OK, one of us talked). This was a mistake in that it took a lot of energy early in the run. We met and lost several groups as they either did run-walks or as they (or we) changed pace. Everyone we met was extremely friendly. We did pass a few people who were having a hard time and were obviously not going to make it. We met up with the support team just as the half marathon leaders came streaming past us. This was one of the more amazing parts of the run. A very large number of the halfers (leaders, midpackers, and tails) cheered us on.They didn’t know us from Martians but still took the energy to say something to us. There’s special something about most runners. The support team cheered us on and made sure we were OK. SS had done an excellent job of getting through the traffic AND finding where we were. The half marathoners made their turn back toward the finish line and we were on our own. The route had started to climb gently but steadily up the Bow River valley and way from Calgary. The crowd had thinned out (a lot!) and we were sharing the street with cars. This was the first time that I really thought about the fact that we were running a new distance event and that the distance was a marathon. What the event was called had never meant much to me but this was kinda neat. I started to fade a bit but made it to the turnaround point and started back – almost. The race organizers had the route take a right turn out of a park, travel 1/2 block, and THEN turn back toward the finish line. That little 1/2 block (see the picture) was a touch nasty. When we started back the support team met us yet again. How they were able to keep doing that is a mystery. SN had changed into some running-type shoes and spent the majority of the rest of the run with us. She’s a natural-born runner, if she wants to be. Her run was easily as big a deal as ours. I continued to fade but running down a slight incline was nice. The temperature had risen and the number of runners around us had gotten pretty small. Plus, the runners around us looked worse off than we were. Susan got a little ahead of me and we ran that way for several miles. At one point, SN came back to me from running with Susan and wanted to know if Susan should wait for me. I said No (or something that meant the same thing) and SN took off to tell Susan. SN did this several times until I caught up with Susan. SS took the car back to the finish area. We tanked about mile 21. The good thing was that there was never a point where we wanted to quit. Also, after the main tankage, we seemed to pick it up just a little. We passed a few runners who were getting into cars and passed other runners who were hurting big time. We made the final turn to the finish line. It was a nice sight. We crossed with the same finish time. The support team was at the finish area and it did seem to be a fitting end to a team effort. We started off a little fast but not too badly. Our realistic goal was to finish before the official course closing – 5:30. We made it but just barely. I do have the splits but there’s nothing interesting there other than the meltdown. One of the surprising numbers from this run was the number of Polar Calories burned – 4108. No wonder I faded. I did take gels every hour or so but I need to find something more. Also, my shirt seemed to be solid ammonia. Not that gentle whiff of ammonia but the kind of ammonia that grabs you by the nose hairs and asks, "Who’s your Daddy?" As mentioned before, we’ve already started the schedule for the next marathon in December. The first one was great and we’re looking forward to the next one. Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one.

Good show and great attitude…Congrats Layne!!! — Caveat Lector "the further you go outside, the further you go inside" – B. McKibben Doug Freese

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Congrats Layne to you and Susan! And thanks for the interesting report. 150-200 mls (5-7 ounces) of Sports Drink every 15 minutes works for me on my marathons. Anthony.

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Way to go,  Layne! And Susan, too. give her a hug for me. Welcome to the club. Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

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Layne! Congratulations on your first marathon! Great to hear that despite some "fading" in the final miles, you finished strong and with another race in mind. I liked the report…. I felt like I was there (and didn’t really want to be there  :) Keep up the great work. I’m looking forward to your next marathon report. Cam

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Woo hoo! Nice race, Layne. Nice report. Congratulations! You know you’re a marathoner now: you had a long, drawn-out, painful experience and are already planning the next one. Hah! One of the surprising numbers from this run was the number of Polar Calories burned – 4108. No wonder I faded. I did take gels every hour or so but I need to find something more.

Sounds as if you need to take gels more often; my method is half a gel every 2-3 miles (depending on where the water stations are), along with 6 ounces of water; that seems to be the right mix. As mentioned before, we’ve already started the schedule for the next marathon in December.

See you at White Rock?? Again, congrats! — Brian P. Baresch Fort Worth, Texas, USA Professional editing and proofreading If you’re going through hell, keep going. –Winston Churchill

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Personal Time: 5:20:30 Personal Pace: 12:14 Event URL: http://www.stampederoadrace.com Results URL: http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2003/run/stampm.htm Pictures: http://curly.cis.unf.edu/pics/sports/calgary03/calg03.html We started off a little fast but not too badly. Our realistic goal was to finish before the official course closing – 5:30. We made it but just barely. I do have the splits but there’s nothing interesting there other than the meltdown. One of the surprising numbers from this run was the number of Polar Calories burned – 4108. No wonder I faded. I did take gels every hour or so but I need to find something more. Also, my shirt seemed to be solid ammonia. Not that gentle whiff of ammonia but the kind of ammonia that grabs you by the nose hairs and asks, "Who’s your Daddy?" As mentioned before, we’ve already started the schedule for the next marathon in December. The first one was great and we’re looking forward to the next one. Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

ALL RIGHT! Way to go Layne! I’ve been waiting to read your report, I was almost to the point of bugging you about it (but luckily for you I’ve been really really busy). So glad to hear you and Susan made it, under time, and are already planning the next! That’s a great sign. It took me a couple of weeks before I was sure I wanted to try another. Yes, burns lots of calories. I have to take a gel every 40 minutes or so, (most marathons in the US it means every other water stop), and I’m still feeling a little light-headed at the end. I might even try taking in more on the next marathon. My stomach has gotten better and better, I can even now do my long runs in the AM right after eating a big bowl of cereal. But I have found out never to eat oranges in a marathon! All three times I tried it they made my stomach turn. It turns out that it was a good thing Claude and I couldn’t get to Calgary after all. We had a big family emergency that weekend and ended up having to fly up to Portland. Would have been very disappointing to get to Calgary and then have to miss the marathon. So, have you picked out a Dec marathon yet? Er, I will definately (barring serious injury) be running the Tucson Marathon again this year, and… it’s almost all downhill….fast course, good support… hint hint…;-) If I don’t completely kill myself there I’d also then like to run the new Arizona Rock n’ Roll up in Phoenix in Jan. But I’ll bet you guys have a good local marathon already in mind? But so Glad to hear it went well and you both finished without serious difficulty (always some small ones in a marathon..). Now I’ll pop over and go see the pics!!! Big Congratulations!!! Teresa in AZ (Still a madhouse here at work, but I *had* to reply!)

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Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one. Event Name: Calgary Marathon – AKA 39th Annual Stampede Road Race

Great effort, Layne and Susan!  Congratulations on your first marathon. We tanked about mile 21. The good thing was that there was never a point where we wanted to quit. Also, after the main tankage, we seemed to pick it up just a little.

Way to go and hang in there! Sounds like even though things didn’t go quite as desired you had enough training to recover and pull through   One of the surprising numbers from this run was the number of Polar Calories burned – 4108. No wonder I faded.

 Like you, I’m not sure if these things relate to real calories, but it’s a nice quantitative method of recording output for the workout. As mentioned before, we’ve already started the schedule for the next marathon in December. The first one was great and we’re looking forward to the next one.

Yea! There you go. Great attitude to have ball in motion already for next major event! Between yours and Mike’s report, I’m not sure I have any energy to work today Dot — "Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

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Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one.

Excellent.  Congratulations to both of you. Walk it, crawl it, run it, drive it…. any way you look at it, 26.2 miles is damn far. Leo

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Layne, great job and thanks for the usual entertaining report. Best to your better half. chris

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Way to go,  Layne! And Susan, too. give her a hug for me. Welcome to the club.

Thanks, Mike. Will do. I’m kinda surprised at how much this distance has come to mean. Susan is talking tombstone text "She finished a marathon." I just hope they find my body. Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Layne! Congratulations on your first marathon! Great to hear that despite some "fading" in the final miles, you finished strong and with another race in mind. I liked the report…. I felt like I was there (and didn’t really want to be there  :)

Thanks, Cam. What? You aren’t totally enthralled by marathons??? I was gonna suggest that you run back with us but I really do think that most people would get injured doing that <G. Sorry to bring back bad feelings but afterward we talked about the fact that we never even thought about bailing. Although I did think bad thoughts about the bluehairs with walkers who kept yelling, "Move it or lose it, Studmuffin!" Then there were those kids I couldn’t catch who, in their best Jim Carey imitations, kept yelling, "You run like a sissy girl." And you aren’t fond of this stuff? Keep up the great work. I’m looking forward to your next marathon report.

Thanks. Shh, but there’s this little swamp 50K next Spring – and it’s flat! Gimme gators, snakes, and leeches over hills any day. Of course, that may change. Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one. Good show and great attitude…Congrats Layne!!!

Thanks, Doug. I did think about you doing the 100 (at about mile 25). It truly didn’t help <G. Running as far as you did as fast as you did just boggles the mind. The distance is enough but you really beat feet. I had Susan for inspiration ("Should I wait for him?" to her niece) which took a good 15 seconds per mile off my last 3 or 4 miles when I found out about it ("What? Get your Mother to wait for me. I’ve got your wait right here – as soon as I catch up with you."). Do you have to make up that stuff? Woof. Thanks, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Congrats Layne to you and Susan!

Thanks, Anthony. I’ll pass it along to her. And thanks for the interesting report. 150-200 mls (5-7 ounces) of Sports Drink every 15 minutes works for me on my marathons.

Hmm, good thought. I tried a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade at every water station plus carried a 16 oz bottle with me. I also did gels and Succeed Caps. Of course, 15 minutes for me ain’t the same distance as 15 minutes for you <G so I’ll take your advice and try upping the dosage. Hmm, now that you mention it, I had been doing more sports drink during training with a Rambo Fuel Belt (8 banger). Dang, that one snuck up on me. Thanks, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Woo hoo! Nice race, Layne. Nice report. Congratulations! You know you’re a marathoner now: you had a long, drawn-out, painful experience and are already planning the next one. Hah!

Hey, Brian. Thanks! I’d been through a divorce so this wasn’t too bad – and I still had my self respect when it was over! Yep, even 5 hour and 20 minute marathons are way better. The next one (marathon) is gonna be great. We’ll whip its butt. One of us has even started working out attack points. One of the surprising numbers from this run was the number of Polar Calories burned – 4108. No wonder I faded. I did take gels every hour or so but I need to find something more. Sounds as if you need to take gels more often; my method is half a gel every 2-3 miles (depending on where the water stations are), along with 6 ounces of water; that seems to be the right mix.

I’m with you on this one. I’ll take your suggestion and try gels more often during training runs. I’m also thinking of trying something more solid like Powerbars or something equally as extreme (burgers, tacos, sweet and sour chicken, coq au vin). Damn, now THAT would be the way to do a marathon. As mentioned before, we’ve already started the schedule for the next marathon in December. See you at White Rock??

The Jax marathon is on the same day and we’ve already registered for it. However, next year …. Actually, I’d really like to do one of those FW zoo events – got fond memories of that area <G. Or maybe a Greenville Avenue Parade??? Yep, we need to plan this out. Again, congrats!

Thanks very much, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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ALL RIGHT! Way to go Layne! I’ve been waiting to read your report, I was almost to the point of bugging you about it (but luckily for you I’ve been really really busy). So glad to hear you and Susan made it, under time, and are already planning the next! That’s a great sign. It took me a couple of weeks before I was sure I wanted to try another.

Thanks, Teresa. We did miss ya’ll. It was great. Even the Stampede had some interesting stuff. I avoided it – A LOT – but Susan went with her sister to several of the downtown events. Susan’s sister is one of the sponsors of a racing chuckwagon called the Chick Wagon. They had special seats for some of the races and poked around the midway a bit. The parade was amazing – even *I* enjoyed it. Yes, burns lots of calories. I have to take a gel every 40 minutes or so, (most marathons in the US it means every other water stop), and I’m still feeling a little light-headed at the end. I might even try taking in more on the next marathon. My stomach has gotten better and better, I can even now do my long runs in the AM right after eating a big bowl of cereal. But I have found out never to eat oranges in a marathon! All three times I tried it they made my stomach turn.

I think you’re on to something (both with my lack of enough gels and the oranges). The Calgary Marathon had water stations about every 2 miles (they did an excellent organizational job) and using your technique would have been better. The electrolytes (Succeed Caps) seemed to be fine but the Caloric intake (glycogen management) seemed a little off. Hot dog, something new to work on. I also agree about stomachs getting better. I’ve been doing some wine writeups for beginners lately and have found that I can go for a casual run right after doing in a good bit of wine (against physician’s orders but …). It’s those "short" intense runs (5-10K) that seem to invite ralph. It turns out that it was a good thing Claude and I couldn’t get to Calgary after all. We had a big family emergency that weekend and ended up having to fly up to Portland. Would have been very disappointing to get to Calgary and then have to miss the marathon.

I’m very sorry to hear that. I hope things have worked out. No, that wouldn’t have been a good trip if you had tried it. Calgary was a lot of fun, the marathon was small, and the people were wonderful. I wouldn’t say that it’s a must-do event but we had a good time. So, have you picked out a Dec marathon yet? Er, I will definately (barring serious injury) be running the Tucson Marathon again this year, and… it’s almost all downhill….fast course, good support… hint hint…;-) If I don’t completely kill myself there I’d also then like to run the new Arizona Rock n’ Roll up in Phoenix in Jan. But I’ll bet you guys have a good local marathon already in mind?

Yep, the Jax Marathon is on December 14. If I remember correctly, the Tuscon Marathon is a week before. Susan has implemented a new ploy that I’ve just cottoned on to – travel to running events. I don’t get out much. With White Rock about the same time, we’re going to have to do some serious coordination. And then there’s the Sunmart, … Wow, thons in December AND January? Woof. The Arizona RnR sounds like quite a party. But so Glad to hear it went well and you both finished without serious difficulty (always some small ones in a marathon..). Now I’ll pop over and go see the pics!!! Big Congratulations!!!

Please do. The pics are a hoot – not very good but still a hoot. One odd thing was that I was ready run on the day after. I felt a little guilty about how good I felt. (?) Thanks! Teresa in AZ (Still a madhouse here at work, but I *had* to reply!)

I hear you. Work is a pig. And, I’m not even under contract this summer! At least we still have our dignity. BWAAAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAAA! Thanks again, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one. Event Name: Calgary Marathon – AKA 39th Annual Stampede Road Race Great effort, Layne and Susan!  Congratulations on your first marathon.

Thanks, Dot. It was fun and definitely a whole new door. Persistence (or stubbornness, potatoes-potahtoes) pays off yet again. We tanked about mile 21. The good thing was that there was never a point where we wanted to quit. Also, after the main tankage, we seemed to pick it up just a little. Way to go and hang in there! Sounds like even though things didn’t go quite as desired you had enough training to recover and pull through

It was weird. I kept expecting to feel this "never again" feeling but nada. Yeah, I like your take on it – training as opposed to muleheadedness <G. New things, new things to learn.  One of the surprising numbers from this run was the number of Polar Calories burned – 4108. No wonder I faded.  Like you, I’m not sure if these things relate to real calories, but it’s a nice quantitative method of recording output for the workout.

LOL. It does go against common physiology, doesn’t it? But, hey, my Momma said I was special. Of course, she always followed that with a crazy laugh. The highest PCal I had seen on a training run was about 2500. However, my average HR was 139 which is mondo low. Who knows? As mentioned before, we’ve already started the schedule for the next marathon in December. The first one was great and we’re looking forward to the next one. Yea! There you go. Great attitude to have ball in motion already for next major event!

You betcha. I have a race slut rep to uphold. And, now I have a new distance category. Between yours and Mike’s report, I’m not sure I have any energy to work today

I don’t know how the boy was able to do it – let alone train for it! Wears me out just thinking about it, too. I wonder if he’d like to drive down and join us for the Tour de Pain this weekend? Thanks, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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Executive summary: It was glorious. W e crashed. We burned. We immediately started planning our next one. Excellent.  Congratulations to both of you. Walk it, crawl it, run it, drive it…. any way you look at it, 26.2 miles is damn far.

Hi there, Leo. You got that right. It was close to discouraging to look back at the city on the horizon when we were at the farthest point on the "out" leg. We’d also just past a guy who was suffering big time and trying to decide whether to DNF (he did). Still, it got done. It wasn’t pretty but then neither am I. "To boldly go where this boy hasn’t gone before." Hmm, but there was that one girl back in the recreational sex days of the early 1970s … NEVER MIND. Thanks, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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The Jax marathon is on the same day and we’ve already registered for it.

I thought that might be what you were referring to. We haven’t registered yet, but that’s Toni’s "goal" race. She wants to do sub-5 and I’ve committed to pacing her to it. On a flat course like Jax, y’all should be in that range, too. Wanna tag along? <g Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

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Thanks, Cam. What? You aren’t totally enthralled by marathons???

No. I did my one. That might be it for me. I’m not addicted to that sort of distance. That amount of running training just doesn’t agree with my body. Nor with my tastes in training. I definitely prefer more variety, like triathlon training, where I can keep running but can work other sports into the training AND the race. And no, the Ironman isn’t exactly my goal, either. But there ARE half-Ironman races…. Thanks. Shh, but there’s this little swamp 50K next Spring – and it’s flat! Gimme gators, snakes, and leeches over hills any day. Of course, that may change.

Yoiks! Sounds like an Eco-Challenge to me. Best of luck in your swam training. Cam — Not every race can be a perfect experience, but every race can be a learning experience.

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ALL RIGHT! Way to go Layne! I’ve been waiting to read your report, I was Thanks, Teresa. We did miss ya’ll. It was great. Even the Stampede had some interesting stuff. I avoided it – A LOT – but Susan went with her sister to several of the downtown events. Susan’s sister is one of the sponsors of a racing chuckwagon called the Chick Wagon. They had special seats for some of the races and poked around the midway a bit. The parade was amazing – even *I* enjoyed it.

Yeah, I was hoping to go and see some of it, being a "horse nut" and all. Maybe another year! Yes, burns lots of calories. I have to take a gel every 40 minutes or so, (most marathons in the US it means every other water stop), and I’m still I think you’re on to something (both with my lack of enough gels and the oranges). The Calgary Marathon had water stations about every 2 miles (they did an excellent organizational job) and using your technique would have been better. The electrolytes (Succeed Caps) seemed to be fine but the Caloric intake (glycogen management) seemed a little off. Hot dog, something new to work on. I also agree about stomachs getting better. I’ve been doing some wine writeups for beginners lately and have found that I can go for a casual run right after doing in a good bit of wine (against physician’s orders but …). It’s those "short" intense runs (5-10K) that seem to invite ralph.

I forgot to mention that in addition to gels every other water stop, at the non-gel stops I’d take in a large cup of the sports drink. So even more calories! And I still think I need to take in more next time. There’s always more to work on. So, have you picked out a Dec marathon yet? Er, I will definately But I’ll bet you guys have a good local marathon already in mind? Yep, the Jax Marathon is on December 14. If I remember correctly, the Tuscon Marathon is a week before. Susan has implemented a new ploy that I’ve just cottoned on to – travel to running events. I don’t get out much. With White Rock about the same time, we’re going to have to do some serious coordination. And then there’s the Sunmart, …

That’s what I thought, I seemed to have remembered you (or someone) mentioning a Fla marathon in Dec. Yep, travel to running events is FUN! We had such a blast last summer in San Francisco. That’s what I was hoping to do again this summer but things got in the way. Next summer fer sure! Wow, thons in December AND January? Woof. The Arizona RnR sounds like quite a party.

I figure I’ll really run Tucson Marathon and just coast and enjoy the RnR. It does sound like a lot of fun and a lot to see, so doing it as just a fun run without worrying about time sounds about right. over and go see the pics!!! Big Congratulations!!! Please do. The pics are a hoot – not very good but still a hoot. One odd thing was that I was ready run on the day after. I felt a little guilty about how good I felt. (?) Thanks! Teresa in AZ (Still a madhouse here at work, but I *had* to reply!) I hear you. Work is a pig. And, I’m not even under contract this summer! At least we still have our dignity. BWAAAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAAA!

PFFT! Darn, there goes the coffee over the keyboard AGAIN! Thanks again, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

Don’t feel guilty about feeling good – I felt my best after my *fastest* marathon! And worst after my slowest… Hmmm, I guess a good incentive to keep trying to go fast! But that means you didn’t harm your body too much this first time, so you know now what limits you have for the next marathon. Teresa in AZ

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The Jax marathon is on the same day and we’ve already registered for it. I thought that might be what you were referring to. We haven’t registered yet, but that’s Toni’s "goal" race. She wants to do sub-5 and I’ve committed to pacing her to it. On a flat course like Jax, y’all should be in that range, too. Wanna tag along? <g

Hot damn! You betcha. Now that we’ve gotten the idea that we can actually finish one, we’re looking at just under 5. Sounds like a pack. It’s a biggie (double points) in the Jax Grand Prix so Susan may do a little dueling with one of her rivals who did a 5:05 last year. But I’m up for packing a lunch. I promise not to talk to Toni at the start – too much. The Blue Room still has ya’ll’s names on it, if you’d like. Yep, it’s gonna be fun, Layne The rec.running report archives may be found at http://kinder.cis.unf.edu/rec.running

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We tanked about mile 21. The good thing was that there was never a point where we wanted to quit.

I hope there was a point where you