October Recap

I can hardly believe a month has gone by and I have not posted a word. This is going to be harder than I thought!!! However, I am going to commit right now to setting aside time each week to update. It is going to be way to difficult to do this one month at a time.

The biggest news generated in October is I have, yet again, failed to qualify for Boston (missed by 6 minutes). As disappointing as this was I took away many positives from running the Columbus Marathon and it will go down as a very memorable experience. A mini race report would include spending the evening before with my son and his girlfriend. We had an early dinner with my wife and two friends who came to support. The three of them then departed for a hotel and Jerry and Jaime and I headed for Jerry's place. Sue and our friends were down as a kind of payback for my cheering for the cancer 3 day and I must say I was apprehensive having them there at first, but it really was the best!!! Spending the evening with Jerry and Jaime was a blast. We watched some football and went shopping at target. Thankfully, I talked Jerry out of buying me a pair of feet pajamas (although I will probably get them some day). Race morning was perfect. Clear and cool with only a light wind. I started the race with long sleeves and gloves but thru the shirt at mile one and the gloves at mile four. It was still a little cold but the only problem that presented was my hands were stiff and I had trouble working my bottles and grabbing water cups. No big deal though I would rather have it that temperature vs hot any day. Anyways, I had a great race through about mile 18. I had positioned myself around 200 yards in front of the 3:30 pace group and had hoped I could hold that spot. At mile 18 I had 3 minutes in the bank but could feel myself start to slow. I did everything I could to push through it but this was not one of those times. Oh well, live to fight another day. Positives for the day included, Sue/Sue/Mary cheering squad complete with signs. Jerry, Jaime and their friends had great half marathons. Jerry ran a 1:29 and Jaime, who I had trained, ran a 1:42 and took fifth in her age group. I had two other friends who ran who both qualified. All in all short of my goal, but a great day.

Also during October, I ran the Cuyahoga National Park fall challenge series. This is a series of five races on area trails that is absolutely fun, fun, fun!!! It is the first time I did it but will not be the last. It would take forever to provide all the details but a quick summary is that each week there is a different theme to the race. You don't know the theme or the distance until you get there so you have to be prepared for anything. As I think about this it really does deserve more detail in case some one ever reads this blog. I want everyone to know how fun this was. I will write it out in detail next post.

I also went to two weddings, my nieces and a friend of Sue's from work...both were a blast. Lots of eating drinking and dancing. My nieces wedding included staying in a hotel room next to my brother and his family...to much fun!!

Coming up in November I have the smart ride, a 165 mile ride from Miami to Key West, the fall challenge a half marathon in Strongsville, OH and the Cape Coral Florida Turkey Trot. Should be lots to write about.

Hope this finds everyone well.

That's all for now.