A Pre-Race Test

Hello there Blog Readers! Just wanted to make sure there were no glitches with posting before the big race actually happened! I'll be sitting by my cell phone and computer waiting for Ben's updates!

Good Luck Ben!
Love,
Holly, Andrew, Ella & Lily

Portland Real-Time Updates

Four days from now, I'll be running the Portland Marathon. While on the course, I'll have a cell phone with me. My sister-in-law, Holly, has volunteered to post "real-time" updates here during the race, so I'll be calling her every 2 miles or so with my split times. Thanks, Holly! Feel free to post encouraging comments while I'm on course. There's a chance that Holly will notice them and tell me about them before I finish the race.

The race begins on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time. I'm hoping to beat my previous personal best of 4:00:03, which means that I'll need to average about 9:09 per mile or better. Wish me luck! :)

Let the tapering begin!

This week is the start of my 3-week tapering period before the big race. I finished the last of three 20-milers on Sunday. I'll summarize my performance in these runs:

20-miler #1 (August 13): Average 9:53 / mile
20-miler #2 (August 27): Average 9:46 / mile
20-miler #3 (September 10): Average 9:22 / mile

When I run the marathon, I'm targeting 9:00 / mile, so these training runs are right where they should be. Until October 1, I'll keep following the training plan, and I think I will reach the starting line confident and ready to fly!