20 Miles!!

So, I ran my 20 miler today. The weather had only a few ways it could have been worse. Mid 40s and rain with 10 - 25 mph winds from the southwest. I had no real rain for the first 5 miles and then the flood gates opened for a good 3 miles. I was surprised how good I felt. I ran 10 miles less last week than my schedule called for, but I think that the 9.5 Sherry and I ran on Saturday was just what I needed. Other than being soaked from mile 5 on the run went well. At about 13 miles my quads and 'hammies' were really tight so I stopped on the porch of a vacant house I know of and stretched really well while waitng for the rain to lighten up a bit. That relief lasted for about three more miles, but by this time I just started walking every 10 minutes or so (walked for about a minute) and then stretched again in a nice downpour at mile 18! While the legs were killing me, I was excited because I knew I was going to make it so I just kept my feet moving - all the while chanting: 'just keep running' over and over like Dory the blue fish in finding Nemo! My time wa right at 3 1/2 hours which should equate to 4 1/2 for the marathon - which is my goal. I'm not sure where the energy is going to come from for the final 6 miles - I'm hoping that the race environment might keep me distracted enough but we will see. Only 19 days left!!

Curt

Over hill, over dell . . . .

On Saturday Curtis and I ran ~9.5 miles. I thought it went pretty well. My feet were hurting quite a bit in the last mile. I usually take some ibuprofen before I run, but I think that I didn't take enough. Usually I take 3 but I took only 2. I know when Sue and I ran in Ashton, my feet hurt at the end too. It is probably time for new shoes but I am putting it off so I will just take my ibuprofen.

We don't really run in parks although there is one that we could but we are fortunate that we have enough roads that aren't that busy. For this run we started at the top of our neighborhood, then towards Schweitzer but instead of up, go south for about 3 miles. Then we turned on Baldy (which is where the Millers live - I know that doesn't help you at all Jay). We go west for a while then turned back north. I won't give the whole not very exciting route, but it has hills and flat so it is a good workout. The initial goal was to do 10 but we didn't measure it out first and it ended out a little short. Oh well.

Curtis is off doing 20 miles this morning. I opted out (cause I can) because it is windy and rainy. I am a fair weather runner overall. Perhaps I should be good and do core? I am excited to see everyone in a few weeks.
~Sherry

Extending

I finally quit talking about it and did it. I ran 6 miles yesterday and took right at an hour doing it. I went to a park I haven't run at yet, the one down by Sarah's house and ran there. I liked it for a change of pace. There's a creek that runs thru the center of the park lengthwise and a track that goes down one side of the creek, then crosses over and comes back on the other side. It's a one-mile track so it's about a half mile out and a half mile back.

We had a pretty serious North wind over the weekend, expecially Saturday with gusts up to 50mph (K. Lee had her first softball tournament of the spring this weekend and it was miserable out there Saturday). It calmed down quite a bit Sunday to a 15--25mph wind, and the sun was out so it was a much better day than Saturday. The inward half mile where I ran was right into that wind though, so I'd get hot on the way out, then kind of cold on the way back, but it wasn't bad really.

I did almost call it quits at 5 miles, thinking I didn't want to overdo it, but when I finished the 5th mile and walked for a minute I thought I can sure do one more, so I did. It was actually quite a bit easier than I had anticipated, and I really wasn't sore yesterday evening or today, so I guess I'm building up more endurance than I thought. It's a beautiful day today, and I'll probably try to do 4 miles this evening.

in the dark

I ran yesterday morning in the dark. I ran in the streets so as not to encounter any raised sidewalks. A good run, all the way except for a warmup walk to Browning Ave.

Much Better

Strange how much difference one day can make. I struggled to make myself run 3 miles on Wednesday then I did 4 miles last night with no problem, cruising thru the first 2 miles without a pause.

Really going to try to get in a 5 or 6 mile run over the weekend.

the doo run run

I ran the whole way!!!! Yay!!!!! Yipee! Brilliant??
I also ran the way that has more uphill, so the running the whole time is even more impressive. Now I have to find another mile to add to my route. Leslie tried running my route one morning this week. I run west and then east back to our house. She runs east, north and south back to our house.

I had to buy new earplugs for my iPod because Phoebe chewed the original set up. I went to best buy and saw the Nike + and wondered what it was for. I bought Skull Candy ear plugs which I am not sure I like. It is hard to get them to stay in my ears.

Perhaps Jay, Sue and I can run together while I am in Oklahoma.

I chose not to run yesterday because it was a beautiful day. I worked in the yard instead. I decided I could run when the weather wasn't as pleasant but I couldn't work in the yard. That hasn't got much to do with running except for the excuses we can find to procrastinate sometimes.

Nike+

I guess it was around a couple of years ago when Apple and Nike partnered up on the Nike+. It's small pedometer that tracks your run and sends the data to your iPod as you run. The iPod tracks the distance run, the time and calculates the calories burned. I didn't think much of it at the time, other than that it seemed a little gimmicky. And since I wasn't running at the time I really didn't care. Then sometime last year, Wired magazine ran an article about it and highlighted the website Nike set up to upload the data captured by a runner's Nike+ and how much people who were using it liked it. It definitely made it sound more interesting than my first impression had been.

About a week ago I saw one in a store and bought it, mostly as an impulse purchase. After I got home I began reading on the box (with a magnifying glass!) and saw that it said the requirements were an iPod Nano or an iPhone or iPod Touch and a pair of Nike+ shoes. My initial thought was I was going to have to return it since I wasn't about to go buy a new pair of shoes to use it with. But I did some googling and found out you can use them with any pair of shoes as long as you have a way to attach it to them. And there are several companies making little pouches for it that attach to your shoes laces. And I saw a couple of Vibram Fivefingers shoes wearers who said they used it with no problems. So I found a pouch for it at Best Buy and finally tried the whole thing out last night.

Out of the box it says it's about 90% or more accurate for most runners, but you can calibrate it to your own stride so that's what I did. You calibrate it by setting a  distance on the iPod then running that distance. I calibrated it to a one mile run. After I ran the "calibration" mile, I went ahead and did two more miles. I was pretty impressed with the result. It said I ran 1.93 mile (I did cut the second mile a bit short as I went to my car in the parking lot rather than continued on the track to my starting point), and it gave my total time, and per mile average as well as telling me I had burned 180-some odd calories.

Then this morning when I plugged my iPod into my computer at work iTunes asked if I wanted to automatically upload the Nike+ data to Nike's web site which I did. I went to the website and signed up for an account. It then displayed my run from last night (the two miles I ran after calibration). So here's a screenshot of the graph it displayed of the data from my run.

Click on the image to see it full sized. You can see how it tracks your speed. You can adjust how many data points it uses to display the graph shown above. Initially, it displayed a much smoother graph but I adjusted it to show more data and got this much more wavy graph. I added a couple of arrow points in Photoshop that show where I walked for a minute or so between the two miles, and a little hump right before the end where I gave a kick for the last 150 yards or so. Pretty slick I thought. It will keep track of all the runs I do with it, so it should be interesting to track my progress.

I really had to make myself run last night. My head just wasn't into it and I had a difficult time making myself go just three miles, even with the new toy. I need to get out this evening too since K. Lee has her first softball game of the spring tomorrow evening and I probably won't be able to run again until this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a better attitude about it.

March 23

I went running this morning. It was about 55 degrees and sunny and of course windy but I ran in a tank top and shorts. There were still some small areas of snow in the park where I run. I started out with a hoodie on by soon shed it. I did 6 miles again and felt better than the other day. I feel like I never get any better at running, but I guess I am better than a couple of years ago.

3.5

I ended up going three and a half miles tonite. I would have done four but Peggy dropped me off at the park and the place I leave the park to run back home thru the neighborhood is on the other end from where I was dropped off. So it was going to be either three and a half or four and a half. Anyway it seemed to help the soreness I had. I actually feel better now than I did most of the day.

I have to mention, I typed this post on my iPod!

Feeling Worried

Yes we got snowed out in Oklahoma this weekend. I thought about running yesterday, but the temp was in the 30's and the wind was blowing up to 30 mph, so I didn't. Instead, I did my exercise routine both days, which consists of some reverse crunches (been doing 4 sets of 12), pushups (3 sets of 20 or 25) and squats with my weights (5x5). And I decided to add some core routines, which are yoga-like exercises to strengthen your body's "core". Then I did the same thing Sunday, minus the squats. And it seems I should have taken it slower on the core routines. They seem easy enough--basically holding poses to a slow count of 30--but later yesterday and today, my lower back has been very sore along with my thighs.

I really want to do 4 miles tonight, but I'm a bit worried about how well I'll be able to because of the soreness. I worry because it seems like this thing is approaching really quickly and I have still run more than 4 miles only once so far this year. I think a lot of my anxiety about it today though is because I haven't run since Thursday last week. Let me get out a couple of times in the next two or three days and I'll probably feel better about things.

Sue and I have tentatively planned to get together the weekend after next and see about running together out at Lake Hefner where she says they have a 10 mile track. I think it would definitely be a good thing for me to get at least one long run like that before the real thing!

4 days

Four days in a row! It is not only the first time I have run consecutive days but also that many days in a week. It hasn't seemed to get any easier as the week has progressed however. We have been having snow flurries and wind, so it was kind of cold. I didn't take a jacket which was fine, but I didn't take mittens either. That was bad. It is funny how part of you can be freezing and part of you is sweating. Tomorrow is supposed to be 52 and sunny. I won't be running either.

6 Miles

My goal today was to run 6 miles and although I struggled, I did the 6 miles! Tomorrow we are going to have a 'winter blast' according the weathermen. We are supposed to get 6-8 inches of snow with wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour. The weather hasn't been cooperating with my training schedule. Hopefully that will be the end of winter for us okies.

A Better Pace

I ran 4 miles last night and really focused on my pace. I have a song on my iPod that I've found sets the perfect tempo for me to run to so I listened to a playlist that leads off with that song as I ran. I ran two miles before a stop because of the better pace. A quick pitstop after the second mile then ran two more with a minute or so of walking between those. I did start to peter out a bit on the fourth mile but that was more due to sore calves than anything else. But what I was really impressed with was I did the 4 miles in 40 minutes--10 minutes a mile. Not much slower than my per mile average the previous day when I was definitely going too fast.

I'm sure that right now I couldn't maintain that pace over the course of 13 miles. In fact I'm not sure I could maintain it over the course of 6 miles, but I've still got three and a half weeks to get there! (LOL).

Achy, breaky knees :(

So I was going to comment to Thais but then I just decided to post. Jay is totally right on the good/bad running days. I ran today and just felt rather blah most of the way. I sometimes think that it has to do with what I ate the day before and probably what I have eaten before I run. Then perhaps some days, one just doesn't run well. Yay for your time Jay, I agree that you probably just kind of go. Curtis runs much faster than me and it appears that you run much faster than me. Sue and I noticed last summer when we did our August 1/2 that she was a bit faster than me but that I seemed to have a bit more endurance (at least on hills). I seem to go between 10-11 minute/miles but the more I do the slower I get. Oh well, it is just about finishing, right?!

So I did 5.64 today, but my knees were hurting. Probably just old age :)
~Sherry

Fast Times at Little River Park

I ran three miles last night and it ended up being my fastest time yet for that distance. I ran it in 28 minutes (that comes to 9:20/mile). I know I ran the first mile around 8 minutes and I had to walk a minute or so after mile 1 and mile 2, so at least 2 of those 28 minutes were walking.

While I take some pride in the time, that's not what I need to be concentrating on. I need to be working on my endurance and focus on distance, not time. At a slower pace I can go more than a mile before I feel I need to walk for a minute to get my breath. I think everyone has a sort of "natural" pace that their body wants to run at and I think my natural pace is a bit on the quick side. Even if I make sure to begin at an easy pace, I have to consciously be aware of my speed throughout my run as I have a tendency to slowly speed up as I go. It also seems to me that the music playing on your iPod tends to affect your pace too...your brain wants to get in sync to the music!

Weighted Down?

I ran again today and it was harder than yesterday. I carried one pound weights in my hands in an effort to prevent them from swelling from the heat. Perhaps it wasn't hot enough to bother my fingers, but I carried the weights anyway. I don't know if it was the weights or if I was tired, but running seemed more of an effort than yesterday. One thing for sure, it is much easier to run downhill (if it is a gradual grade) than uphill (even if it is a gradual grade). If I run in my neighborhood, it is one or the other. It was another lovely day, but tomorrow it is supposed to rain.

I'm back

I ran this afternoon. No headache and no nausea. I ran almost all the way, even uphill. I wore capris and a wicking shirt. It made quite a bit of difference. It is lovely today, with sun and in the fifties.

Signed Up

After Curt pointed out yesterday that the SLC Marathon is only 4 weeks away, I thought it was about time I actually entered the thing...I had already paid for my flight to SLC, but hadn't filled out an entry for the event. So I went to their website this morning and got that taken care of. Money-wise I guess I'm getting pretty committed to this thing!

There's a Backwoods store near my work so I went there yesterday and bought a pair of toe socks. I wore them with my new shoes last night and did a 4 mile run. I had no problems from the blister I got Saturday so that was good. I guess I spoke a bit too soon the other day about being past the soreness in my calves from the minimalist shoe running though. The calves are definitely sore today, although not nearly as sore as they were last night when I finished.

Right now I'm not sure if I'll be wearing these shoes during the marathon or not. By my last mile last night, I was definitely feeling some strain in my feet and calves..as in I coudn't have gone much further. I tend to think though, that if I keep wearing them for my running for the next month that I should be pretty adapted to them in time. We'll see.

Thais called me the other night and we succeeded in getting her signed up to contribute to our blog here (as everyone saw). Hope you've recovered from the migraine Thais and can get back to some practicing!

Another long one

Curt here,
I ran 17 miles today after finishing up last week with a total of 31 miles. Sherry met up with me around mile 6 and we ran together for about 5 to 6 before she had to split off to go pick up the squid from school. . I have been taking some snacks along when I run - cheese stick, fruit snacks, granola bars. The best thing I've found is the product called Gu. B -asically a little shot of energy - amino acids, glucose, fructose, vitamins, and a small amount of caffeine. This stuff is really great! I took a shot at 8 miles and another at 12 miles. I had plenty of energy. Last week I only had one shot with me and really struggled for the last three miles. Today the only problem was my quads and hamstrings were really aching in the last three miles. I have used an ice bath after my two long runs and these really help also, but they can be painful on toes. I only stay in for 10 to 15 minutes and then a nice hot shower afterward. Anyway the legs are feeling better now - 5 hours after my run. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Salt Lake next month - only 4 more weeks!!

Just about 10!!

Today I met up with Curtis to do part of his run with him. He was doing 17 as part of his training. My initial plan was to go for 10, a nice long run. I met him about at his mile 5 1/2 or 6 and then split off from him at about mile 11 (his). I think it was around my mile 8ish. We split because I had to go pick up Syd from school. Anyway, I ended out doing 9.7 (almost 10)! I was happy with that but I must say my legs were pretty tired in the last mile. My head was saying just keep moving. All in all, it went pretty well. I felt pretty good for the most part and it turned into a beautiful day, with the sun out and very little breeze (there are advantages to Idaho).

Don't get discouraged though Jay and Thais because you guys are running further than I did when I first started. And really, after 4+ years of running I would hope that I could do 10 miles :) We will see how the rest of the week goes.
~Sherry

Migraine forstalls running

I had a migraine headache Friday at work and still have it somewhat, so I haven't run since Wednesday. The course I am running is about 1.8 miles, some of which is slightly uphill. Maybe that makes up for the lack of distance. I am able to run the whole downhill half and most of the uphill half. I can see that the breathing is not as hard, but my legs want to get shaky at times. It would be nice to Phoebe but I am afraid she would run in front of me and make me fall. She could use the exercise to use up the puppy energy.

I would rather go barefoot than anything else, so maybe I should check out Jay's shoes.
There, I have blogged!
thhttp://blogger.com

New Shoes

I've really been getting into the idea of barefoot running. I recently read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and in the process of telling the book's central story of an epic race between the legendary Tarahumara indians of Mexico and a handful of the world's best ultra-marathoners, McDougall covers a variety of running topics including the rapidly-gaining-in-popularity idea that modern running shoes are largely responsible for the majority of foot and leg injuries and problems suffered by runners today. He points out that the modern running shoe with a thick heels and heavy padding in the soles was only invented by Nike in the early 1970s. Prior to that, humans ran for thousands of years barefoot or in shoes with little if any padding and thin soles. Track and field and marathon runners in the Olympics ran in very thin soled track shoes with minimal padding throughout the 20th century until the 1970s.

The basic argument is that the modern running shoe causes you to come down on your heel which is not the "natural" human running motion. Landing on the heel causes a tremendous shock that reverberates up the leg placing undue strain on the knees and hips. Barefoot runners naturally come down on their mid-foot or forefoot. This makes for a much gentler landing where the shock is absorbed by the arch of the foot and the calves of the legs. Landing on the heel barefoot on a hard surface is basically impossible; the shock to the unprotected heel bone is painful and can bruise or even break the bone.

Since I read the book I've been working on striking on my forefoot when I run. It takes some practice as it affects your entire running motion and works your calves a lot more than the heel-strike motion that is commonly used by most shod runners these days. You also have to use extra effort to run that way if your wearing conventional running shoes...they encourage a heel-striking motion. So I've been suffering from sore calves for the past month after my runs while adapting to this motion.

I've also been reading up on the options in so-called minimalist shoes. The shoe that had really caught my eye was the Vibram Fivefinger. There's really no other shoe like it on the market. It has toe pockets, no padding and very thin soles. It really is a minimalist shoe. The reviews you find online tend to be almost universally positive and many of the reviewers absolutely love them.

A couple of weeks ago I found a shoe store at North Park Mall near my work that carries them and this past Friday I went back and ended up buying a pair. I think I'm really going to like them although they will take a bit of getting used to.

My new Vibram Fivefingers

I went for a run in them today and was hoping to go for 5 miles or so. Unfortunately, my new shoes gave me a blister on the inside of my right foot. I had gone about a mile or so when I began to feel the blister forming. I went ahead and did a couple more miles but quit after that since it was getting painful and I didn't want to make a big mess that would keep me from running for several days. On the positive side I did like the shoes and my feet don't hurt even after three miles in them (they can make the soles of your feet sore if you overdo it in them before you build up your foot muscles). And my calves don't hurt either...I guess I'm pretty much past that now.

It was a beautiful day for running, sunshine and temperature around 60; still a bit windy, but not as bad as yesterday and the trees in the park shielded most of it. I guess this post is getting kind of long so I'll end it here with a picture I shot at the park today during my run so you can see how pretty it was out.

The Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains

I just went to the park which is where I run but it so windy, I turned around and came home. I have been running 4-5 miles and had wanted to try for 6 today but I knew with the wind, I wouldn't get very far. I think March is the worst month in for wind in Oklahoma and of course it it the month, I need to be stepping it up. Maybe next week will be better.

I watched my granddaughter Abbey this morning and she likes to run all around the house. We went in the backyard, where she likes to run back and forth. So maybe she will join us in 2025.

Next run

So, Curt here,
I got home from work last night and had 5 miles to run and was pleasantly surprised that I had NO pain from my 16 on Monday! I really felt strong and while the last 3 miles on Monday were quite grueling, all 5 last night felt strong. After measuring my distance I realized that I was actually 1/10th short of 5, but close enough for me. I have to run 8 in the morning tomorrow. Would have done it tonight but it was miserable - rain/snow mix and, of course, cold and nasty. I hope the weather's better in the morning.
Great work on your runs RJay!! Keep up the efforts. I'm really excited that we're all doing this. Also I agree - Where's Sue!?!? Thais? Ross? Lets hear from you guys!

Training Programs

I ran 3 miles at the park last night. I've been doing 3 miles quite a bit lately when I run, so there's nothing particularly special about that distance last night. However, I've been trying to see some sort of improvement as I go along, so for a lot of my runs I try to have some sort of goal to better my previous efforts. Last night I ran the 3 miles in 32 minutes which averages out to 10:40/mile. I've been averaging a bit over 11:30/mile on runs of that distance, so I beat that average time by almost a minute! That improvement was from a combination of keeping the walking breaks short and picking up my pace.

On my last couple of runs my first lap has been my slowest pace-wise. I took almost 11 minutes for my first lap last night, which would make my average for the last two laps about 10:30 each, and I felt like I ran the last lap the fastest. While 3 miles is a long way from 13, I'm encouraged that I can run 3 miles and speed up a bit with each mile.

As Curtis wrote in his Training Hard post, it's not hard to find marathon training programs/schedules online or in the many running magazines out there. Since my whole approach to this challenge has been kind of spontaneous and haphazard I haven't actually taken up any sort of "formal" training program. That being said, I have read up a bit on them. I've gathered that many of them call for regular, fairly short runs on weekdays and a long run on the weekend with a rest day following the long run.

I have pushed my average runs up from 2 to 3 miles to 3 to 4 miles (usually), and feel pretty confident I could go 6 or 7 miles without too much trouble but 13 miles is still a ways from that. I do think I need to start trying to put in a longer run on the weekend--right now probably try for 5 or 6 miles then work my way up from there.

I guess I'm rambling a bit so I probably ought to wind this up. Here are a couple of last notes before I end this post. First, the Lost episode was excellent this week, well-worth skipping a run for! And I notice that Sue has signed on to the blog. Now she just needs to start posting!

And we're still waiting for Thais and Ross to sign on here...

So 6.5 today which is good. I did 4 on the treadmill today and then went outside. As much as I dislike the treadmill I do have to say that at least it warms me up to go outside instead of having to wait for 2 miles to warm up. That said, I felt pretty good which is good. I still need to add some mileage. Curtis has a big run for Monday, so perhaps I will do a longer part with him (not 17 miles thought).

Hope you guys are going strong.
~Sherry

7.5 miles

First off, thanks Jay for helping me navigate. My computer skills are obviously lacking.

So I am not nearly as eloquent as Curtis and RJay but I will go ahead and add something. Today I ran 7.5 miles (yay me). I did 3 on the treadmill, which is quite miserable if you were wondering, and then went outside to do a few more and did 4.5 instead. That is good, because I have been rather slow on the whole preparing for a 1/2 marathon. I felt pretty good when I was outside which was nice and the weather was cooperatiing which was nice too.

I'm excited that we are going to be running together. I wish Ross was able to run too, but another time maybe. So go Team Hansen!!!
Sherry

Nonstop

I ran again last night at the park by my house. However, I only went 2 miles. But to make it more than just a short 2 mile run, I ran the two miles all the way...no walking breaks. So that's my longest "only running" run so far this year. Prior to that I was usually running a mile non-stop, then taking a minute or two walking break every 5 - 8 minutes of running after that.

I was right at 10 minutes/mile. I actually ran the second mile faster than the first though, so that's good too.

I've still definitely got a ways to go, but it does get a bit easier every time out, so I continue to be "cautiously optimistic".

Have to watch Lost tonite, so no running; I'll probably do the situps/pushups/weights thing this evening.

Training hard

So, I've been training for the marathon for about 7 weeks now. Last fall I got the hair-brained idea that, since I'm tuning 50 this year, I ought to celebrate by running a full marathon. I found a training schedule for older idiots on line and started earlier this spring. I immediately caught a cold and lost a week of training, but then got into a semi- rythm before my back went out - for the first time in 4 years! After three weeks of recovery - lots of stretching/strengthening exercizes, I'm back on track and just ran 16 miles today. The weather was awful - raining and low 40s but i completed my run in under 3 hours. The last three miles were the hardest! This has me a bit worried, but carefully optimistic about having to add 10 more miles to that, but we've still got a month to go before the race.
I'm really excited that Sherry and her Sibs are going to run together and I hope they will post on this blog with the rest of us. We're all sad that we have to make allowances for the errant brother Ross who seems to be struggling with priorities right now , but I'm sure we'll find a way to forgive him in the distant future! We're also hoping that Sherry's dad, John will come to cheer us all on.
Thanks to RJay for getting this thing going!

The Park

I've been doing most of my running at a park that's about a mile from my house. When I don't have a car I can run down to the park so it's pretty convenient. The park has a big figure-8 track that's 1-mile around making it easy to track my mileage. There's a big pond in the big loop of the figure 8 and the western side of the park is bordered by dense woods. It's pretty nice scenery for a small park in the middle of town.

I've shot a few pictures with my phone's camera on some of my runs and here are a couple of them. This first one was taken not too long after our second good snow of the winter. The snow had melted off the track, but still covered most of the ground. I had the park to myself on this particular night (I was the only person in town crazy enough to be out there running in those conditions) and it was really quite beautiful and peaceful.



This second photo was taken a couple of weeks later on a cold, misty Saturday. And once again, I pretty much had the park to myself!



I've been looking for a bit more variety lately though, and yesterday I went out to Earlywine park in south OKC and ran a couple of laps on the mile and a half track that goes around that park. There's another park right next to my daughter Sarah's neighborhood and I'm going to get out there one of these weekends and check it out too.

Target: Salt Lake City Marathon

Last fall, my youngest sister challenged my brother Ross, and myself to run in the Salt Lake City Marathon this coming April. My oldest sister Thais, and I were the only ones of my siblings that hadn't yet taken up running in our middle age. I started exercising (fairly) regularly two or three years ago and had been thinking about adding running to my regimen to help out on the aerobic end of things, so this was the perfect opportunity to get started, and I decided to attempt the half-marathon with my sisters Sherry and Sue. Then Thais got the spirit of it all and she decided she's going to enter and run the 5K. That only leaves Ross who had some wild excuse about prior obligations that weekend having to do with American Heart Association...whatever!

I began running a bit in December, but really only got going seriously after the first of the year. It's been a bit of a challenge so far this year since we've had one of the coldest winters of the past several years, but I've been getting out as much as possible and have run in some pretty cold/bad weather. I originally thought the SLC Marathon was sometime this summer and I was a bit discouraged when I found out (in the middle of February) that it's in the middle of April, giving me only a couple of months to prepare. But I got over that and have decided to give it my best effort and see what happens.

I'm currently running 3 or 4 miles on most of my practice runs and hope to be doing 6 or 7 miles before the marathon. Then I'll just have to do double that to make thru the half marathon!

My brother-in-law Curtis (Sherry's husband), who, as I understand, is going to run the whole marathon(!) suggested to me the idea of having a web page to chronicle our efforts and progress toward this goal, so I set up this blog for all of us to post to.

It should be an adventure so stay tuned!