Chicago Marathon

Yesterday was the Chicago Marathon.  All week I had been watching the weather and hoping it would be hot.  Well my wish came true and it was way to hot.  The weather was 85 degrees by 11 a.m.  I was a wet mess.  The city did an awesome job of having tons of water and keeping us cool with misting station along the way.  I ran with the 3:55 group till the 20th mile and then I had to walk because of the heat.  Over all I did ok.  My time was 4:05:06.

Placement:

Overall: 7255/31,401

Gender: 5351

Division: 916

Training

Not much has been going on.  Just training and dealing with my new shoes which are not working and I will be running the Marathon with my old ones, which cause my toe to bleed since they are so tight.

Guess What I did?

Today I ran 20 miles with my running group and it felt awesome. I felt like I ran 20 miles but I was not in pain. I think I am finally at that great place runners talk about. I am ready for the Chicago Marathon.

17

This past weekend my running group (CARA) ran our normal long weekend run. I again decided to run with the intermediate group and did 17 miles. For the first time in a long time this run hurt. It was my toes that were hurting. My socks were to thick and my feet were killing me at the end. My hips and knees felt this run also but after 13 miles or so I do feel my runs. I will be running 18 miles this weekend with the running group then I'm off to the Azores Islands for a late summer vacation. I will be continuing the training schedule and will try to blog from there if its possible.

We are only 9 weeks away from the Chicago Marathon. I ask those of you who read this to consider my charity as an end of the year tax break. www.firstgiving.com/joeruns

P.G.-13.1

Sorry for the shirtless picture but I was hot after doing the Chicago Distance Classic. I did the run in 1:51:35. I was totally happy with that time and will try to work on improving that time. After the race I went to the race site to get the correct time and they had posted an update. The race was actually 13.27 miles, it was longer then they expected, either way it was a great run and I am glad I had a awesome time in the end.

15

15...What is that you ask? Well, that is the amount of miles I ran on this past Sunday. I was only scheduled to run 13, but the group kept going and so did I. I felt awesome when I was done and was glad that I did it.

Training has been going well. I have been following the schedule and doing my runs. I will be honest that its hard some nights and I skip smaller mile runs. I do always try to make the long weekend runs.
I love running with my pace groups. I would recommend that everyone find a running group. I have been running with the 9 minute mile group on the weekend and have been leading a smaller 9 minute mile group during the week. We call ourselves the funny nines, since we never really run 9 minute miles.
Currently, my body feels great. The knees are kicking and the only thing wearing down are my shoes. I am on a second pair of shoes and I love this pair even more then the first pair. They are called Etonics and were recommend by the guys at Universal Sole.

This coming weekend I will be running a half marathon here in Chicago called the Chicago Distance Classic. This will be my first half-marathon in Chicago. I feel ready and I will be running with a co-worker who runs the same pace as I do.

As always if you have not done so yet, please take a look at my charity page http://www.firstgiving.com/joeruns . You only have less then 3 months left to help me to help Children in Africa who have been effected by Aids.

Just training

Hello again. Things have been very busy on the running front. I have been training up a Storm. Over the past 2 weeks I have been doing strength training with Coach Leach and running 2 night during the week and a long run on Sunday. Currently we just finished our 9 mile long run. I was again in the 9 minute mile group but for the last 2 miles I broke free with another runner and we did 8:10's. I was beat. This week I did strength training and I think I may have over done it since my shins were killing me at the end and tonight when I tried to run with my mid-week group I started out strong at 7:45 minute miles and found myself at 9:00 minutes for the last mile since I was in so much pain. I think tomorrow I may run either slow or not at all since this Sunday is 10 mile day. I hope that those of you who read this are still considering support my Charity and will take time to look at www.firstgiving.com/joeruns. I will try to post more often and let you know how I get over this shin pain.