St. Paul Half Marathon/Chicago Marathon

My wife Sarah finished her first half marathon on Sunday! She finished in 2:34. Slower than she hoped, but it was hot and humid, so finishing was primary. She ran with her friend Angela and both had a good time. Congrats dear!

Since the Lifetime Triathlon, I switched gears back to marathon training. I had a little more spring in my step having now accomplished my first triathlon (and doing better than I expected) and just weeks after having finished my first marathon. Now that I now what I need to work on and having experienced what it's like to run 26.2 miles, I am anxious to try my hand at the Chicago Marathon. 

I know that I need to work on speed, so I've been doing more Fatrlek training sessions. I also just like saying Fartlek.....Fartlek, Fartlek, Farlek. I know, how childish.  Anyway, I was reviewing my training log (a spreadsheet I keep at work) the other day and looking at my prep for Grandma's and realized that I didn't complete all my long runs. I noticed that on the weekends that I was scheduled to do long runs, we were out at my wife's parents place. They live out in western MN, 4 miles north of a town called Chokio. If any of you have ever been out this way know that there is not much to look at unless you like fields of corn or soybeans and the wind doesn't stop blowing! I mean really blowing. Not just a light breeze across the open plains; but howling, skin stripping, wind! 

I've already had better long runs this summer and the heat hasn't gotten to me the last couple weekends; temps were only in the low 70's at the start, but the humidity has been 85%+. One of those runs, I got to do with my brother. We knocked off a 14 miler in 2hrs 7 min. Not bad. he lives just outside Chicago and I'll be running with him on Oct 11. Or at least we'll be starting together. He's run this marathon a couple times and is a much faster runner. 

I have a better plan for this marathon and have enjoyed the longer runs more. The cold weather and wind this spring didn't make the long runs as enjoyable. I hope to make a good run at a 4hr marathon and hope the training thus far has served me better than Grandma's.