Oh kewl...I get to start it this month Hope everyone is doing well. Can't write much here as I am totally swamped at work...but just needed to log my morning run & check in here real quick (good distraction from work). Love the nice cool weather this morning...hope it sticks around for my HM on October 11. If it does, have a good shot at breaking 2 hours. Well, everyone have a great day...a great month (can't beleive it's October already). Good luck with your training and any races y'all might be doing!!

Ayola, Good luck on your HM. Hope you're trying to stay relaxed. There is little you can do now to affect the outcome except for over train the next few days. Hopefully, you've got yourself on a good taper plan and the rest is about nutrition, rest and mental preparation. As for me, my leg is feeling better nad if the weather holds up, I'm going to run a little bit tonight and see how it goes. How's everone else doing, especially all of you folks from Maine? Did you survive the hurricane allright last weekend?

Oh crap! I forgot to mention that I signed up for my next half marathon this morning. It's the same one I ran this spring, the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon. May 3, 2009. Registration just opened today. It's cheaper if you get in early, plus it has been filling up earlier every year. This will be my 6th straight year .... great event.

Hi Everyone from " Rehab Row"..... I am in active recovery of my leg injury, and have decided to not race another HM till early next year.... I am working really hard on muscle conditioning and strenghth training, which I feel is and has been the root cause of all of my problems. I have always had these skinny little bird legs, and muscles to match, so I am going to spend the next couple months getting them bigger and stronger so that when I begin my next aggressive training program, I will KICK ASS. Tis my goal and I MEAN IT. It pains me to not be running right now, but in the grand scheme of things, It is what must be done. I signed up for this sport for life, and I love the sport too much to not do the work. I'll still be in here, cheering for all my buddies, and sharing in the commaradere... Happy October! MTA: Go Ayola! I am rooting so hard for you to have the race experience you have been dreaming of! Go Girl!

Cheffy ... That sound you are hearing is everyone waiting for you to post some race pictures.

Just got a really poor quality one from the race last night. Hub is fixing it up and I will post it in a day or so.... It's funny though! I have a look on my face that is somewhere between smile and grimace..... Hub said I look like I am skipping across the finish line... Hang in there...It's on the way.

Teresa, that's fantastic for your son and his team mates. So, I ran 5 miles tonight pain free. Kept it around an 8 minute pace which was comfortable. A few stiff things, hip, calf, knee, but a good workout is what was needed. Weather was perfect tonight, cool, a little bit of sun and lots of colorful leaves on the ground. Only a few more weeks for me to be able to run outside on weekdays. We had a lot of rain in CT on Sat as well and overall in Sept. I don't remember the exact amounts, but I do know that it was in the range of what you stated. Sounds like everything is going to dry out over the next couple of days. Larry

Ayola, good luck at your HM! I'm so excited for you. Mine was much more fun and less painful than I expected! I bought one of those oval "13.1" stickers, in pink and white, for my car. My kids got a kick out of that. I probably won't make it to the XC meet until early afternoon, because DS's heat will be at 2:10. How sweet of your husband to arrange a cruise! You have a keeper. Mr PH, that's great you signed up for the May HM! I need to get off my duff and decide on one. I'm not too motivated to run right now. Larry, I'm glad your leg did OK! Good news. I'm off to take DS16 to get his braces off!!! It's been almost 3 long years.

My first HM is 10/12. I’ve had very little race experience so pacing is my challenge. I know the distance will be fine – I’ve done 12, 12.5 miles and 10, 11, numerous times and know I could’ve run longer. I had planned on getting in the actual 13.1 this past weekend but a cold prevented me from doing that. Did 12.6 on Monday after I felt a little better. Two weeks before it was a yellow jacket sting in the knee that kept me from running for 4 days. So, a few setbacks recently. Anyway, the one race where I ran hard was the Charles River run June 25th. 7.5 mile race and I ran a surprising 7:45 pace. This morning I ran a 5.25 mile tempo and ran it pretty hard. I just wanted to see how I felt at a good effort. I managed an 8:02 pace. All my recent tempo runs haven’t gotten close to that race time – in distance or pace. I couldn’t have had THAT much adrenaline that day. But my mpw are up from June by a good 10+mpw. So I’m wondering why it’s so hard to hit that pace in a training run. Is adding more miles slowing my tempos? My plan is to start my HM slow. I know what a 9:30 pace feels like for me and I think I can stay there for the first 3 miles and then creep it up to 9:00 and hopefully feel good and crank it up a little further. I know I’m not supposed to worry about pace and time for a first HM but I need to. I know I can run 13.1 miles. I just don’t know how fast I can do it. So I need a realistic goal but with my lack of experience, it’s hard to figure that out. My 12.6 on Monday was ~9:00 pace and I didn’t feel like I was running superhard at all. I changed my goal from sub-2 hours to 1:50 and it was an arbitrary decision. I suppose with a good taper, rest and nutrition next week, perhaps I’ll be able to run faster than I think. I just don’t know. Sorry for the ramble but if I can’t spit all this out here, where would I? MTA: and a very Happy October to you all!