After the Finish

 

26.2 DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are here to write our victory post!! Katie and I had a great race today and successfully completed ALL 26.2 miles in Philadelphia today--our first (and probably last) marathon. Our apologies to those of you who were hoping to ever run with us again :) We're retired. The race was fun yet challenging and we couldn't have made it without our family and friends who came out to the course to support us. Special Shout Outs to: The Kalbach Family, The Hartford Family, Aunt Faith, Uncle Bill, the Brown Panthers & Leah. YOU GUYS ROCK!! We also loved to hear from everyone who left us phone calls & text messages throughout the day. We were so encouraged to know that people all over the country were pulling for us!

Run Highs: Revisiting favorite haunts in Philly, returning to Penn's campus, cheering fans, accomplishing our goal AND THE FINISH.
Run Lows: Hills in Manayunk, cold weather (especially after optimistically throwing away our warm clothes at Mile 2, ooops), Miles 15-17 and blisters for both of us.

Post Run Food (our favorite section to blog about): Hot chicken broth in the finisher's tent, Philly soft pretzels, New Deck cheese fries & potato skins washed down with Woodchuck cider & Yuengling beer. Good stuff!

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET....GO!

Sarah and I are in Philly and are super excited about the race tomorrow. We will be having a pre race dinner tonight to celebrate Sarah's 29th Birthday! We picked up our race numbers, 2839 and 2840, and hopefully have finalized just about all the details. Now all we have to do is RUN. :) I am looking forward to seeing many of you along the way- thanks so much for all your support! We will be sure to post some race day pictures here after the run.

Track Our Progress As We Run the Marathon

You all can track our progress on Sunday. Sign up below and you can receive text messages, emails or pages about our progress while we run the marathon. Keep in mind the race starts at 7am EST.

http://www.doitsports.com/results/MSG-signup.tcl?sub_event_id=761

Race Countdown: 6 days to go...

Are we REALLY running this weekend??? I can't believe the marathon is finally here! Katie and I are very excited for this upcoming weekend in Philly, should be a great reunion w/ family and friends, plus 26.2 miles, oh right.....just that little thing....Seriously though, this training has been an amazing journey and we are thrilled to finally finish what we started way back in July. We are so thankful for all the encouragement and well-wishes that have supported us along the way. Looking forward to posting about our successful run in just a few days!!

Check out the race website for more info/course maps at:
http://www.philadelphiamarathon.com/exec/philly/home/home.asp

Blisters Begone!

I know I have been complaining a lot about blisters, so I wanted to share what my feet have been through over the last couple of weeks. Here are all the different pairs of shoes I have tried at some point during our training. In the front are my recent blister prevention products. Just FYI, gauze and hospital tape do NOT help, this was a bad idea on my part. Don't do it :)


My feet/blisters a week after our 20 mile run. Sorry for the graphic photo but marathon training isn't pretty people! I cannot wait to get a pedicure after the race. I am happy to report that my 3rd pair of shoes (Brooks Adrenaline women's 10 medium width) are becoming my new favorites. Katie and I ran 12 miles today and my feet were blister free which feels amazing! Ahhhhhhhh!


Run Highs: SUNNY, no rain, fall colors, rocking out to music and breaking the 10 minute mile barrier for the first time in our training!
Run Lows: The first six miles, getting run off the trail by bicyclists
Post Run Food: Gatorade, cheese and bananas at Katie's. No meatball sub but pretty darn good!

Feeling great after 20 miles

Katie and I at Seward Park in Seattle at the end of our 20 mile run. Like Katie said, overall this run was great and we were filled with a new sense of confidence that we can really do 26.2 in a few weeks! Almost there! AND congrats to the Red Sox, can't wait for the World Series!

Longest Run- 20 miles!!!

Today Sarah and I completed our longest run yet. It was the longest training run that we will do before the marathon. Now we will start to taper our running. I was so nervous before this run- I couldn't sleep last night and I have been thinking about this run all week. I am not sure why? This long run was only 2 more miles than our last one of 18 miles. I guess because the run was the height of our training.

It turned out to be a great run! We felt good most of the run and we had some great support along the way! Thanks to Andy, Aaron and Brian for coming out and cheering us on as we ran along Lake Washington. You guys rock! The best part (I think) of the run was realizing that we CAN run 26.2 miles and we WILL do it in 4 weeks! The worst part was the rain. We had a light, steady, cold drizzle most of the way. I guess that is what you can expect when running in Seattle. Overall, I am so glad it's DONE! The miles flew by with distraction of cheers from our supporters and thoughts of post run food and watching the Red Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS tonight!
RUN HIGHS- cheers from family and friends
RUN LOWS- blisters, sore knees, rain
POST RUN FOOD- meatball sandwiches

We notice that it is raining...and we are still running...

Our 14 mile run on Monday was not a training highlight, but we finished it and stayed on track. The title of this post refers to our new Zen-like approach to training. For instance, instead of become actively upset by the fact that a) it rained the entire time b) we were soaking wet c) the City of Seattle apparently shuts off the water fountains in October (who knew??) and d) 14 miles is still a long way, we attempted to mentally distance ourselves from this unpleasantness and "rise above" during the run.

This run was still rough. We're not there yet I guess :)

Anyways, we actually did 14 miles at a pretty good pace and Katie kept me going at the end of the run when my legs were slowly turning to concrete. Thank goodness for my good friend and awesome training buddy! She motivated me with visions of dinner later that night--does she know me well or what??

This weekend's run is the pinnacle of our training, a 20 mile run! We are nervous and excited about this milestone at the same time. Check out our proposed Tour de Seattle at this link

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=171964

and come cheer us on if you're in town! Thanks again for all the support!

Training Update--18 Miles DONE!

OK so we just have to brag a little bit--we ran 18 a couple of days ago and I have to say that we ROCKED this run! It went so much better than our 16 miler which was so encouraging at this point. Katie mapped out a great route for us on the Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle and honestly, the miles just flew by (can't even believe I am saying this but true!). The end was a little tough but on the whole, we did great and felt pretty good afterwards. We only have a couple more weeks of hard training before the race, the end is in sight!!

A big thank-you to Katie's friend from work who recommended taking Ibuprofen before the run, personally I think this really helped and I think this woman is a genius :)

Rockin' the Bellingham Half!

The half marathon this weekend went really well--despite some major wind and hills Katie, Kira and I had a great run and enjoyed our weekend exploring Bellingham, WA. This picture is after the race--now that it is over we are all smiles! This was the inaugural run for the event and it was neat to participate in the "first running". We also enjoyed the hospitality offered by Kira's roomate's parents who welcomed us into their home the night before the race and also enjoyed an amazing post-race meal at Kira's friend's house afterwards. Once again the pleasures of running include all the eating we did this weekend :)

Run Highs: new course, amazing water views, tons of post-race food (who knew pepperoni pizza was the perfect post-run food??) , downhill sections of the run and supportive friends along the way. AND it didn't rain, amazing!
Run Lows: "gale-force" winds, uphill sections and dodging walkers while attempting to run uphill


This week's training calls for an 18 mile long run...we're a little intimidated but excited to be this far into the training process. Updates to follow. Oh and GO SOX!!

Bellingham Bay Half Marathon this weekend

I am so excited that we have a "light" training week this week--only 13 miles! hah hah! Seriously, anything less than 16 sounds great for this week! Katie, Kira and I are running in the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon this Sunday October 7th. Bellingham is about 90 miles north of Seattle on Puget Sound so we are looking forward to checking out a new city and a new running route. Feeling some race-day excitement will keep our training motivation high as well. I'm looking forward to taking a little trip with my favorite running buddies too, should be a great weekend!

If you're interested, check out their website at www.bellinghambaymarathon.org/

Thanks for all the continued well-wishes and encouragement, it means so much to hear from everyone, especially as we push through the last few challenging weeks of training. With your support I know we can do this!

Sarah's Running Mix "26.2 or Bust"

1. So Low, So High/ Maps
2. Pushover/ The Long Winters
3. Show Me What You Got/ Jay-Z
4. North by Northwest/ Blue Scholars
5. My Favorite Munity/ The Coup
6. Business Time/ Flight of the Conchords
7. Teenage Wristband/ The Twilight Singers
8. Such Great Heights/ The Postal Service
9. I Wanna Dance with Somebody/ Whitney Houston
10. You Wreck Me/ Tom Petty
11. Don't Bother Me/ The Blakes
12. Mr Brightside/ The Killers
13. Put it on Me/ Ja Rule
14. Stronger/ Kayne West
15. Re Fresh/ Common Market
16. Float On/ Modest Mouse
17. Sagaba remix/ Blue Scholars
18. Pretty Voice/ Cloud Cult
19. Rain/ Bishop Allen
20. Sons and Daughters/ The Decemberists
21. Like A Prayer/ Madonna
22. Hey Ya!/ OutKast
23. G'Dang Diggy/ Common Market
24. Spitting Games/ Snow Patrol
25. Your Mangled Heart/ The Gossip
26. Shattered/ The Trucks

16 Miles- Ouch!!

On Friday Sarah and I ran our 16 mile long run for the week. It was really tough and it hurt- a lot. 16 miles is a LONG way! We ran along Lake Washington and around Seward Park- one of my favorite places to run. So mentally for me it felt good to be out running there and we were lucky once again to have some beautiful weather. Kira, Sarah's fellow classmate and all around super cool gal, joined us for part of the run and we passed many miles chatting it up. The music mix was also helpful as we ran up a hill that in the past kicked my butt. I was a little nervous most of the run about this hill, but I put on 'So Low, So High' by the Maps on my iPod and it totally pumped me up as I ran up the hill. The best part of the run was when it was over, no really. When we did finish Sarah convinced me to wade into Lake Washington to cool off. I wish I had a picture of this! I am including a picture of Kira and I eating a wonderful breakfast after a run this past summer. Eating is a fabulous part of marathon training. More food pictures to follow.
To sum up the run............
RUN ACHES: Katie- knees and thighs, Sarah- entire lower body
RUN HIGHS: music, scenery, great running buddies

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

I have been really touched over the past few days by all the support Sarah and I have received- both in running this marathon and in raising money for the American Cancer Society in honor of my dad. Many of you have been super supportive from the very beginning last December when my dad was diagnosed. This is above and beyond anything I would have expected. So THANK YOU!!
The training so far has been tough- I went away to London for a week and lost a bit of the momentum. But I am happy to say feeling back on track now. Sarah has been so awesome in planning our long runs and made a kick ass running mix- which I will post here soon. You guys gotta check it out! Overall I am feeling great to be finally training for a marathon. It has been a goal of mine for some time and I wanted to do it this year as I am approaching a milestone in my life- turning 30 in March! Yeah, this is a big deal- I know you guys feel it too! Okay, keep reading for more posts later about our 16 mile training run this week and more!

Latest Long Run: 15 miles on Saturday

We stepped up our running with our longest run ever, 15 miles in West Seattle this weekend. These pictures were taken along our running route. 15 miles was ALMOST enjoyable with these amazing views of Seattle and Puget Sound along the way.

Run Highs: Beautiful scenery and weather, new music, Gatorade and good training partners.
Run Lows: Blisters (Sarah) and tired legs (Katie). Thank goodness for Ibuprofen!

These are some pictures from our most recent race together--the Seattle Half Marathon which we ran in November 2006. Note the lovely weather--running in sleet and rain was not that much fun. We hope the weather will be better in Philly!

Philly Marathon website

Check out the course on the Philadelphia Marathon website.

Welcome to our blog

Katie and I have registered to run our first marathon this November in Philadelphia. We are halfway through our training and have about 9 more weeks to go at this point before the big race. Check out our blog for training updates, pictures, and links. Thanks to all for your support and encouragement, we couldn't do this without you!