Another Update

Hi there folks out in blog land. Sorry I have been a real slacker in the blog department.
The workouts and training for races have all gone according to plan. Looks like the last thing I wrote about was the Rocky Raccoon 50k trail race.

The next thing on the calendar after Rocky was the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon on November 15, 2009. I had a fantastic time in San Antonio, even though it was such a huge race. Total participants in the half and full marathon together exceeded 35,000. Isn't that amazing! When the half and full split off, from each other, the race got interesting. It was a lot hotter than expected, but I was not looking for a pr as I was still in training for the Big Rocky Raccoon 100 miler in February. I had the good fortune to meet a couple of my online training friends! Both extremely nice and supportive of my efforts leading up to a 100 mile walk at some point in the near future!

Anyway, total miles walked in November were 110.6, 57.2 miles of that total were races, the balance: training.

December was kind of a slack training month for me. I only walked 51.9 miles... and that it usually the way this works for me. Every other month is usually a fall back month.
Next race: The Texas Marathon on Jan 1, put on by Steve and Paula Boone of the 50 States Marathon Club. This was an awesome race! It was pretty chilly in the morning, and I drove over to Kingwood on race day. I had to leave home at about 3:30 in the morning, but that's ok. My new Hammer Nutrition fueling program dictates that I eat breakfast at least 3 hours before my race starts, so the timing was right on. I wore my Adidas Adizero RC racing flats, which are VERY light and I was wondering how my feet would feel at the end of 26.2 miles on concrete. The truth is... my feet never hurt, and I walked my first sub 6 hour marathon in almost a year! (5:59:19) yes... that's sub 6! LOL. The great thing about this race is that it is a looped course. You do the loop twice for the half or 4 times for the full. We met each other coming and going, so the race never got boring. I met another of my online walking buddies who is also a Marathon Maniac just like me! I walked with her for most of the first half of the race, and it is due to her great walking speed that I was able to get a good fast marathon done as part of the training for Rocky! The medal they give out at the end of this race is so huge that they have to give it to you in a box because if they put it around your neck, you will simply fall over. It weighs a kilogram. And the post race food??? a pizza buffet to die for and lots of chocolate chip cookies and REAL Coca Cola!

So, the rest of the month of January was all the time I had to build mileage for Rocky Raccoon on Feb 6. I ended up with 154 miles walked for the month of January with one big back to back weekend... 20 miles on Sunday and 26 miles on Monday. Then taper, which for me is a complete stop to training except for the hand to mouth exercise. LOL
I guess that kind of brings things back up to date, and I will be putting my thoughts about the 100 mile attempt together in the next couple of days.

Maryann aka malvs2walk! and yes... I still love to walk!