Brain Dump

Ok, so, quite a few things going on over here in my world. I'm going to put them all out here, mostly to get them off my mind and actually see the events organized in some fashion.

First of all, I want to make the comment that my training has reached a whole new level of quality. I can't even begin to tell everyone on here how much my running ability has improved. I honestly can't make you understand if you don't know how running works--it's nothing against anyone, just that usually people don't understand because they simply don't care. However, in the event that a select few do care, 'll just tell you a couple of things, a few statistics to put things in perspective.

As of December 31st, 2007, I:
--Ran a total of 2643.9 miles,
--Ran 16 races, including nine 5k's (3.1 miles), three 10k's (6.2 miles), two 5 mile races, a marathon, and a 10 mile race.
--I won the marathon.
--I won five of the 5k's, got second overall in two, and the other two were just not worth mentioning.
--I won the 10 mile race.
--I was second overall woman in one of the 5 mile races, finishing only 1 minute after the winner, who is also training for the Olympics for her third time. The other 5 mile race I finished 5th overall woman.
--I won two of the 10k's. I got second overall woman in the other 10k.
--I finished in the top 10 of 10 of these races, including winning one race completely.

Now, I know that is a lot to retain, but I promise, all of that information is important for what is to come. As some of you may know, I have qualified to run in the Boston Marathon in April, as well as the New York Marathon in November. I plan to do both, but I have already registered for the Boston Marathon. Because I had already decided to run in the Boston Marathon, I began looking for training programs way back in November to (sort of) follow. i found one, and this is what it is called, just to give you an idea of how serious I am about this:

Competitive Marathon Program
A training schedule for competitive runners who want to improve performance in the marathon
race distance.

It is 20 weeks long; therefore, I started it on December 3, 2007, in order to run it through all the way up to the Boston Marathon, April 21, 2008.

As of today, I have made plans to do several things over the next few months. Here they are, in order:
1. Chiller Challenge 8k in Omaha - January 27, 2008 (this is equal to 4.97 miles)
2. Deep Freeze 5k in Omaha - February 11, 2008, which Phillip will be doing also.
3. Shamrock Shuffle 8k (the world's largest 8k, 30,000 people) in Chicago - March 30, 2008, which Phillip will be doing also.
4. Boston Marathon (26.2 miles) in Boston - April 21, 2008

So, I need to say a few things about events 3 and 4.

First of all, the Shamrock Shuffle is, like I stated above, the world's largest 8k. So there will be people from all over the world at this event--30,000 people in Chicago for this race, and we'll be there. Because there are so many people participating, they have to start the race in waves and corrals. There are two waves, the first wave containing 5 corrals: Top 100 (elite runners), A, B, C, and D. Not only that, though, but to be placed in one of these corrals, you must have a qualifying time from 2007, based on your time for a race you ran. Wave Two is for people who do not have a qualifying time, they're just racing.

In order to compete in the Top 100, with the elites (Kenyans, Nairobis, etc.)--
well, I'll just show you what it says on the website:

WAVE 1 (approx. 10,000 participants)
Top 100: Qualify by 2006-2007 performance in Shamrock Shuffle or 2007-2008 5K - Half Marathon results or previous start corral qualifier*. Submit time by fax to 312-904-9808. Male: <5:15 per mile; Female: < 6:15 per mile.

Corral A: Qualify by 2007 performance in Shamrock Shuffle, Distance Classic, Chicago Marathon or previous start corral qualifier*. Male: <7:00 per mile; Female: <7:30 per mile.

Corral B: Qualify by 2007 performance in Shamrock Shuffle, Distance Classic, Chicago Marathon or previous start corral qualifier*. Male and Female: <8:30 per mile.

Corral C: Qualify by 2006-2007 performance in Shamrock Shuffle, Distance Classic, Chicago Marathon or previous start corral qualifier*. Male and Female: <9:30 per mile.

Corral D: Any past participant in 2005-2007 Chicago Marathon.

WAVE 2 (approx. 15,000 participants)
Open: Past and new participants, average pace 11:00 per mile.

As of today, guess where I'm going to be starting? YOU KNOW IT! Right up there in the Top 100!!! This a HUGE opportunity for me. If I do well at this race, who knows what might happen...

Okay, on to the Boston Marathon. As of today, we have purchased flights to Boston for Saturday, April 19, through Tuesday, April 22. The marathon is actually on Monday, April 21, but we arrive Saturday for sightseeing, and Sunday we plan to watch the Women's Olympic Trials in the morning. That afternoon we'll pick up my race packet, and then I'll get a good night's sleep (doubtful). Then Monday morning at 10:00 am I'll be pounding the pavement with 24,999 other people.

Whew. What a start to the year.