Mile 45

Report from Andrew: Ben is at Mile 45 and ten minutes ahead of pace. Looking tired, but still doing well! Of the solo ultra-marathoners, it seems he's passing people, not slowing down. So that's a good thing! Look for a photo from Mile 46 coming up!

Mile 37

Just got a call from Ben. At 37 miles, he's 9 minutes ahead of his goal time! He's still feeling pretty good overall. Starting to get tired since this is further than he's ever run before. But he says he's still in good spirits! It continues to rain. :-)

Mile 35

Ben with Tom (dad) running along side him! All smiles!

Lunchtime update

Just got an update from Andrew on the sidelines. Ben was at 34.5 miles. 50k or around 32 miles is the longest he had run before. So he's just starting to enter new territory. It's now raining so the second half of the race is pretty wet. Ben seems in good spirits still and feeling well!

The first half of the course has some pretty big hills, but the second half seems to be more flat overall.

Andrew and Jenelle are cheering on Ben every 2-3 miles and Tom and Pat (Ben's parents) are cheering him on about every mile or so.

Hopefully, I'll get an update posted again just before he finishes and/or just after.

Had dinner here once 11 miles done

Early Morning Update

Hello, this is Holly (Ben's sister-in-law), reporting from the Run Ben Run Newsdesk here in Minnesota. ;-) Just chatted with him on the phone. He sounds in a great mood!

He's at mile 3 in exactly 30 minutes so he's right on pace for his goal. He reported that it's a little chilly, but no wind or rain or anything yet, so it's a beautiful day so far to run for nine hours!

Thanks for stopping by! Keep checking back as Ben will continue to post photos and I'll be back later this afternoon with more updates.

Ready to go

Packet pickup

Race Tracking Here!

A special welcome to all who have reached this page via RunningHungry.org. If you check this blog on race day (Saturday the 23rd), I will be posting occasional updates, and some will have pictures taken BY ME while I am running the race. Exciting, eh? :)

Here is my planned race pace. If I run the first ten miles at 10:00/mile pace and the remaining forty at 11:00/mile pace, I'll finish in nine hours. I'm not going to try and follow this exactly -- in fact, I'll probably be a tiny bit ahead of it, at least in the early going.

Cayman Islands Movie!

After ten months of procrastination, I have finally put together a movie from the Cayman Islands Marathon, which was last December. Check it out on the movie blog!