WOW…

Has it really be over a month since my last post? Where does the time go? I guess that with my season ending after the marathon, I’ve just put off blogging. Rest and family time seem to occupy most of my blogging time now. I’ve been racking my brain on a full marathon race report, but just couldn’t get anything worth writing about. Well without further ado…

So where did we last leave off? Oh yeah, Logan was racing in his longest race, a 1 mile kids run the night before the marathon and Nikki’s 8K. He did really well and made us all proud. I ran with him so that I could ensure he’d pace himself. He wanted to blast out and lead the race, don’t know where he got that from, but he stayed with me and was very consistent. He got a nice side stitch, yes they even hurt a 5 year old, and walked once. I told him it was totally okay to walk, just didn’t want him crying or quitting. He even gutted out a sprint finish. He was ecstatic to finish on the track in front of lots of folks sitting in the stands. We are so very proud of him and how much he enjoyed his own race. Nikki says that Ansley was yelling very loud and was happy for her brother.



Nikki’s 8K went really well. She posted the fastest splits, minutes per mile, than in all her training. She was very pleased. I’m very proud of how hard she’s been pushing herself and what she’s already accomplished. Maybe I’ll get her into a Tri…

My marathon, not so much. Turns out, 50’s and raining really means 75, 100% humidity, and sun. In the end, I took what the day gave me and ended up missing my goal by about 30 minutes. On average, most of the folks I train with and talked to missed their goal by 40 minutes, so a bad day had by all. GI, i.e. stomach, trouble started about mile 16 and lasted most of the last 10 miles. Too much sugary PowerAde, I guess. Found Coach K about mile 21 and stopped to chat. She ran with us from then on. Truly a blessing as I’ve always had issues with the last 6 miles of the marathon and have never truly pushed through. Thanks in large part to Karen, I finally realized that the hurt, doesn’t hurt that bad. The pain subsides. I’ve always believed that I’ve gotten through the “wall”, but until now, I don’t think I ever had. For the last 2.5 miles Karen kept me right with her. She pulled my mind away from everything that was telling me to stop, shielded me from the wind, and we began picking people off and a very fast clip. I finished just over 4 hours, but with a renewed sense of marathon running. I’ll get the GI issues solved and will hit my 3:30 goal in ’09!

Our Hokies have another ACC Championship!! In a year when that didn’t seem possible. Very young team, poor offensive output. But they found ways to win games. It’s been a stressful year, watching some very bad games, but back to back ACC Champs sounds really nice now! My bold prediction is that the Hokies will play for, and win, a National Championship in the next two years.

The kids are super excited about Christmas! We have this little Elf from Hallmark called Elf-On-A-Shelf. The story is that you name them and they watch after you, telling Santa if you’re good or bad. The kids named him Snoopy. So he leaves every night and returns in a different hiding spot for the kids to find. They can’t touch him or he losses his powers and won’t get to speak to Santa. Then Santa will pass over our house since he doesn’t get updates from Snoopy. It’s pretty fun and the kids have 100% bought into it. They love running around the house looking for Snoopy every morning. Nikki and I have just as much fun finding hiding spots in the evenings.

And Ansley is loving all her books!



I’ll be better about regular updates going forward…