Marathon Mom

Matt convinced me that we should save some money a pre-register for the Winter Carnival Half Marathon that is tomorrow. I have always waited to register and wimped out a last minute due to weather, not losing any money. All week I have kept an eye on the forecast and it just kept getting worse. As of this morning the predicted weather at the race start is -9F and -24 wind chill, yikes! The race is still on, but they have now shortened the course to only 6.5 miles. I'm kind of pissed, I would rather just run the entire thing if I am going to be out there. Now I need to plan a Sunday run to get in the 12 miler that is on my schedule. Oh well, this race will only make me tougher and I have brunch with mimosas and friends to look forward to after the run.

Yesterday I think I had the toughest run I have ever had. I worked during the day and was looking forward to a nice run with Matt after work. My car said it was 27*, so I thought it would be perfect. The problem was the snow and wind that were here on Saturday. The entire run was snow covered and a lot of the paths were covered by knee high snow drifts. We actually changed our planned route a few times in attempts to find better conditions, but things only got worse. We started with just a light breeze and by the end it was gusting, not to mention the long hill we encountered with about 2 miles to go. We manged to run 10 miles, which felt like much more, at a slow pace of around 10 min miles. The slowest run I have done in many years. I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't give in to my urge to hop on the park shuttle to warm up and cut off a mile or so. These are the runs that make me wonder why I live here.

Thanks to everyone who voted in Round 1, we did it! Morgan made it to Round 2, he was in the Top 30 of 6500+ dogs. Voting for this round goes today until Thursday the 15th. Please help Morgan out again with as many votes as you have time for. To make it to Round 3, he needs to be in the Top 10. To get to the contest just click on "Round 2" in the title above.

I seem to make them every year, but quickly forget. Here I go again, 2009 Goals: -Cross train 3x week (bike, swim, etc.) -Strength training 2x week -Heal and no more injuries -Feel good at the end of races -Straight As in my final semester of grad school -More multisport events (although my schedule doesn't show it) -PR at all distances -Qualify for Boston -Possibly a 50K 2009 Races (so far) March 8th Life Time Fitness Indoor Triathlon April 18th Earth Day Half Marathon or 20 Miler April 26th Ironman 100 mile bike ride May 16th Maple Grove Half Marathon May 25th Stillwater Marathon August 30th Minneapolis Duathlon Sept 12th Ready to Rock 10K

Morgan is in the Star Tribune's Cutest Canine contest and needs your help. This is round 1 and he needs to be in the top 30 of 6500+ dogs to move on. He's doing great, but can always use more votes. When you've got some extra time stop over and vote (you can vote every minute if you want). To get to the contest just click on "Round 1" above, you'll have to register to vote, but it's simple and quick.

Last week Matt and I decided to do this run on New Year's Eve, when we registered the forecast was 20 degrees. Well that ended up being wrong, I think this was the coldest run I have ever done. The temp was 5 degrees at the most and it was windy. On Monday, we picked up our packets and great running jackets that we got for registering, it was a little tempting to not go, but we decided it would only make a tougher to do it. The run started at 5pm, so we met at the running store and walked the 1/4 mile to the race start. It was a 3 loop course on a path that was thought to be about 1 mile. The race started and I was off. I was the first woman and only had a couple men ahead of me. I was doing fine until I hit an icy patch and landed hard on my butt towards the end of the first loop, as I fell a guy hurdle me to avoid falling too. I was passed by another woman as I tried to get up. Each lap got progressively slower as I wanted to avoid another fall. By the 3rd and final lap I was cau...