Pre Marathon day

Today was so busy- but fun. I woke up and headed out to the CARA board where I met Beth and others to do strides to get ready for the marathon the next day. A little later Beth’s boyfriend picked us up and we went to Starbucks to get lattes and kill some time until 10am when our marathon meeting was. At the marathon meeting we dropped off our gels with people who would be working at different Fleet Feet stations along the race with our projected time of day that we would arrive at the stop. Then he talked about the weather and the race and how we should start off slow. After the meeting I headed home. Lynn’s train from Purdue had gotten in a little bit early so she was waiting for me at home. We made some lunch and then headed to the expo. We sampled and trialed a lot of new running products. After that we went back and started making dinner. We wanted to have an early dinner. I made pesto and chicken pasta and I put Lynn in charge of making garlic bread. Jenny and Tyler brought a salad. We all had so much fun catching up- it was Lydia, Kyle, Jenny, Tyler, Mel, Lynn, and I. Lydia and I are planning on running the marathon together. I am not sure if I can keep up with her because she told me she has been running 100 miles a week to prepare for the marathon. That is 40% more miles than me. oh well. I will give it a shot. Later that night Anne Fennema’s train got in and she spent the night with me as well.

Dr. Joe Vigil and flowers from Jeff

I got flowers at work today from Jeff! It was very thoughtful. He was wishing me luck in the race on Sunday and said he wished that he could be there.

Marathon is tomorrow! My body feels stiff and heavy but I am told that is normal. I went to the expo at lunch and they made me fill out a W-9 (the form to report prize money). I thought that was funny considering the amount of Olympians in the race. After work I picked up some groceries for having people over for dinner tomorrow night and then headed to Fleet Feet for a round table with Dr. Joe Vigil. The talk was very interesting. He said the only way he knows how to coach is through science but there are other ways that work also. Anyway it was interesting. He said they have the equipment to calculate exactly what rate lactic acid will build up in the Olympic teams muscles and what there lactic threshold is. Therefore they do the computation and tell the athlete- this is the pace you need to run. He said- there is no question- that is what they have to run- its proven that that is what they can do. He also said they have a diet of 120 miles a week. That is their job. He also said that they do all there workouts in the morning because when you sleep your joints stretch out and there is more cushioning between the joints. I asked if with there extremely high mileage whether they have any problems with there joints when they are old. He said not at all. He said that the athletes that are at that level have very good form and aren’t hurting their bodies while running. He also talked about how hard it is doing long runs with them because he has a different sports drink for each athlete based on there body weight and then he believes that they need it every 15 minutes but they get spread out so he has to drive back and forth between the men and the women for 3 hours giving each person there special drink every 15 minutes!

Breakfast Club and Thief!

Today I woke up early to do our last workout for the marathon. I was a bit skeptical about doing a workout the week of the marathon because I am really tapering but I decided I would trust Coach Leach. The workout ended up being really fun. We did a mile, 1200, 800 on the track with very little rest in between. He explained that the goal was to get your max Vo2 up and that effect should last us through Sunday. It is a workout from the Olympic Training camp. Coach Leach calls it the Breakfast Club because it is done in the early morning and is nutriment for the marathon. I was pleased that my marathon legs could still run a 5:28 mile and fast 1200 and 800 (don’t remember the times).

After work was quite the event. I was going home when these two guys came up on this girl and whisked her wallet out of her purse and then dodged through the people. The guy behind me yelled “PICK POCKETER--- GET THEM”!!! And then everyone went crazy- it was like this swarm of people flooding the streets chacing these 2 guys in the middle of the street. 2 police were chacing- one under cover. They caught them and body slammed them into the street. The thieves were throwing punches and the cops whipped out there guns and were yelling. Then got the guys hand cuffed and stuck them in the police cars. It was quite exciting! My heart was still pounding for awhile.

Spirit of the Marathon

After work today I went to the theaters to watch The Spirit of the Marathon with some friends. It was an independent film makers documentary of the Chicago Marathon. He followed 5 different people from there training to after the marathon. The film followed a 70 year old man doing the marathon, a young couple trying to qualify for Boston together, an over weight single mom, Deena Kastor (American record holder), and a Kenyan. It was so interesting to follow the completely different stories. It was also neat to recognize every place in the movie because it was all in Chicago.

good church service and day

Another fun day. I woke up and ran to Bucktown where the Bucktown 5k was. I was just planning on jogging it because of the marathon coming up but after 2 miles of holding back it was driving me crazy so I ran a fast last mile and ended up getting second. After the race I hung around and chatted with work friends and then headed home and went to Church. Church was really good. It was on a passage where the disciples wanted Jesus to condeme a sinner and also where the disciples wanted Jesus to tell them who was the best disciple and Jesus would have nothing to do with it. The sermon talked about how sometimes we get confused on whether people are rejecting us or rejecting Jesus. We want to judge people and have some sort of pecking order. People that don't think or act or look like us we sometime jump and say they are rejecting Jesus when in fact we just feel like we are being rejected or we want to feel superior to that person. It was an interesting point. In addition, she talked about how it is not our job to condemn or judge others- the best was to be a disciple is to focus on sharing what God is doing in our life-not on how we think someone is living in sin. I thought this was a good point. She pointed out several passages were Jesus made a point to associate with people that were in the minority and people that were living differently. There was a church potluck after church so I went to that. Later that evening I watched a movie. (like my new version of a fruit bowl? : )

Saturday in A2

Today was fun. Jeff had to work a half day. He left me with his keys and I had quite the morning. I went to Borders to pick up a book that I had ordered online. Then I walked around downtown Ann Arbor and got coffee and some food at Panera since I had a gift card. Then I went to the farmers market and poked around a bit and got Jeff some bread. Then I went to get Jeff a new battery for his watch. Radio Shack was right next to a grocery store and a dollar store so I went and got Jeff some eggs since he said he was out and then went and looked in the dollar store. I got back and changed into my running clothes and started for a run. Jeff joined me when he got home and we chatted about our mornings. After that we went to Northville and went to the Cider Mill with his parents and little siblings. It was really fun. We got cider and donuts. The pumpkin patch was decorated very cute. After that we met 4 of Jeff's friends for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Then I took the 7:30 Megabus back to Chicago.

Jeff's Bday

Today I took a half day because it was Jeffrey's birthday. We had a nice dinner at Grizzly Peak Brewing Company. We started off with a beer sampler. It was fun to choose our favorites. The lodge type atmosphere in Grizzly Peaks was nice. They gave Jeff a free beer glass and dessert for his birthday.