Boston 2012 – Athletes 2 1/2 minutes faster

I picked up the mail yesterday and among the half-dozen catalogs, bills and a package for Landry was the envelope we have been waiting two years for from the Boston Athletic Association. Our Bib pick-up card arrived along with the pre-race information for this years race. Being a “seeded” race makes Boston a lot more [...]

Finishing Touches for Boston

So, here we are. Less than three weeks away from our return to the site of our biggest disappointment as an endurance athlete.  Just 19 days away from a shot at redemption.  Taking a Texas Sized eraser and wiping away the beat down that the Boston Marathon put on us back in 2010, and replacing [...]

Three Weeks to Boston – I wouldn’t change a thing.

With the Boston Marathon now just three weeks away there is not a whole lot of heavy lifting left to do for the athletes who are finishing off their training plans and preparing for one of the greatest single day sporting events in the world. “Boston” is watched by more people around the United States [...]

Runner Tracking at the Boston Marathon

As athletes received their bib numbers for the 116th running of the Boston Marathon last week, the Boston Athletic Association posted information about the options for tracking runners at this year’s Boston Marathon. If you sign up for messaging – which is free for up to 4 athletes on race day – you will be [...]

26 Days to Boston – Bib Number 5280

On Friday as I was arriving in Virginia Beach for our final tune-up race before Boston I got a text message from a friend telling me that Boston Marathon Bib Numbers and Corral assignments were up on the Boston Athletic Association website. With the exception of elite athletes who are “seeded” by their bib numbers [...]

Race Report – Shamrock Half-Marathon

It seems that every time we toe the line on race day there is at least one lesson out there to learn. Just because things during race week don’t necessarily go your way – it doesn’t mean that when the gun fires you can’t just set all of that aside and lay down something special. [...]

Shifting Shamrock Expectations

What was shaping up to be a great weekend of racing is starting to look pretty suspect. Landry’s cold that kept her out of school this week became “Daddy’s cold” a couple days later. I’ve got a sore throat, headache, general “achey-ness and my voice is all but gone. PR this weekend?  Highly doubtful. I [...]

23 miles and one cold beer ….

You know, sometimes it’s just the simple things in life. I woke up on Sunday morning with our last “real” long-run on the schedule for Boston. Sure we have a relaxed pace 20-mile run 15 days before Boston.  But that run is more a victory lap of our training program than anything else.  When we [...]

It’s Race Week! Shamrock Half-Marathon, VA Beach

Hard to believe that we have made it to this point.  The race before “THE RACE” as it were.  The Anthem Shamrock Half-Marathon this Sunday in Virginia Beach. It’s not often that I would travel more than 1,500 miles just to run a half-marathon, but this training cycle for Boston was put together with a [...]

Character Building – One Hill Repeat at a Time

I believe it was Dwight L. Moody who said, “Character is what you are in the dark.” I’m not sure that he was thinking about a marathoner running hill repeats alone on a dark street in Austin TX at 5:00 a.m. when he uttered those words, but they definitely spoke to me quite loudly early [...]