Grandma's Marathon 2008

Well, my 4th Grandma's Marathon is in the books. It was a good run. I've been running more miles than other years (quite slooooowly), and I didn't do my normal, Higdon-inspired 18 week training program. So it shouldn't be all that surprising that this was my 2nd slowest marathon in 5:01:46. I'll take it... and the t-shirt and medal too. :)

Thanks to Paul for shuttling Andy and I around before and after, and putting his professional spectator skills to work -- if my count is correct, he saw me at 5 different places. He's also responsible for the pictures and video below. It was also nice to see Sean and Adria at a couple spots (thanks for the lemon drops, Sean). And thanks also to the other folks who would've cheered for me if the gap between Andy and I wasn't so big. hehe

I expect I'll go back to do it again in 2009.


mile 12



mile 25



finishing -- actually running, sort of



ahhhhh, finished

FANS All-Nighter

No, I wasn't running. I was grazing at the aid station buffet. Lots of grazing. While others were doing lots of running. Congrats to all the FANS runners! Wow... the grit and determination it takes to go so long and so far. First in the heat, and then especially through those lonely, too-quiet hours of the night. It was impressive, and intimidating. Shoot, I even got tired of grazing after so long. (Ok, not really.) Again, Congrats to all the runners for pushing themselves to their limit, in both the 12 hour and 24 hour events.

For some reason I only took a couple pictures...

the 12 hour winner, still running strong at the end :


royalty on the course, just one of a number of entertaining hats :



Ok, during a few of those lonely, too-quiet hours of the night I was a little bummed that a certain trail runner who shall not be named didn't make it to the aid station for 4th shift... but now I should thank him for this nice piece of granite. So Thanks, Mr. shall not be named runner. :)

Chester Woods Trail Run

The 2nd annual Chester Woods Trail Run is over and once again it was a great event. There were lots of nice trails, tired legs, and smiling faces. Oh yeah, and some rain! My legs were tired early but held up fine. My arms are another story... I wore my sleeveless shirt and some upper arm color and muscle definition is certainly in order. :)

A couple pictures: