Chaire Herodikos Selymbriaios!

I missed something: What marathon are you running?

Nice run Aaron! it sounds like you are starting to hit a rhythm!

Bonnie

Sweet run Aaron!! Wow! You were booking! Keep up the great work. Let us know how the marathon goes! When is it?

When are where's the marathon? I hope you have at least 2 weeks to taper. I would go out at an 8-8:15 min pace and let yourself get comfortable take your pace down when you start to get in a grove. Then around 15 miles see where you are at and how you feel to dermine if this is your race to qualify, if not just focus on the glory of finishing your first marathon (this is your first right). Remember to have fun, I always run my best races when I am having fun.

A marathon is a long way and you can lose a lot more time in the end if you don't save a couple of minutes in the begining.

Many thanks to all for the kind and helpful comments. MArathon is Seattle on 11/25. Plan is to train hard the rest of this week (with a bit more intensity than distance) and then start a two week taper.

Josse, I have been ruminating over my race plan, so your comments are particularly appreciated. The course this year has a brief but fairly intense hill between mi 2 and 3 (where you get on the I-90 bridge) and then an infamous meat grinder between 21.7 and 23 (that happens to go past my old elementary school), with a nice easy downhill in between. Basically, I figure I'll have to make my race in that in-between zone: by mi 23 I'll be spent and lucky to keep it around 8:00 back to the Space Needle.

So I was thinking about going out around 7:45, taking it fairly easy on that first hill, and then zapping into the full-on MP mode just after. Does that make sense to you? Totally agree about having fun! But I do like to push myself and it would be pretty sweet to qualify on the first go-round, though sub-par September training may doom me to an early spring marathon for a second try.

Course elevation chart:

http://www.seattlemarathon.org/download/SM07_COURSEelevation_100050_p(3).pdf

Awesome. You never mentioned that you decided to do that race, though I suppose it's been a few weeks since we've met up. I'll be over in Seattle that morning to cheer you on, and I'll join you for a taper run this weekend or next if you'd like.

What time do you have to have to qualify?

I'm 36 so it's 3:15:59.

Is that picture old because I though you were in you early 20's.

Ha! Nice of you to say so, but no that's from last May. I feel all of 36 in my achilles at the moment, I'll tell you that much.

I think you can hit your BQ time, but you will need to work for it. I agree that you should take it easy those first couple of miles and kick it into a higher gear once you get to the downhill around the three mile marker.

If it comes off I'm going to be one happy (and tired) camper. The Plan: miles 1-4 average 7:45, middle 17 average 7:10, and if I'm still on track by then I can get away with 8:30 on the hill and then 8:00 to the finish. I've run 7:24 in a half with very little training and 7:07 in a 12k only a bit more recently, and have since had several months of good effort. But I've certainly never tried to run 7:10 for 17 miles. So we'll just have to see how much of a boost I can get from a few weeks of good nutrition, sleep and race-day adrenaline. If the miss is by 10 minutes I won't be heartbroken, but a bummer-qualification would be, well, you know.