The upcoming Marathon and Dedications

The Marathon training is well underway now. Since I was halfway there I only have halfway to go right? Well this last half is the hardest I think.

I researched many different training programs and then in addition to that talked to many people that have run multiple marathons for advice. Most of them said to follow Hal Higdon and his training plans and if I had more weeks than his plans to do more long runs of 20 or more. After reading a bunch and realizing I had 19 weeks left until the big day and from advice I received about how far to run here is my schedule of my long runs:

May 5th I had a half marathon   DONE
May 12th 8 miles COMPLETED
May 19th 15 miles  Finished
May 26th 8 miles  Concluded
June 2nd 16 miles   Rocked it and actually did 18.02 (16 running miles 2.02 walking miles)
June 9th 8 miles  Did a triathlon and figured as hard as it was, that was enough for the day.
June 16th 17-18 miles  Ran 17.08 miles on June 14th, walked a bunch later on in the day.
June 23rd  11-12 miles   Finished 11.13 miles on June 21st.
June 30th 19-20 miles  Did 20.01 with style !  Rhoni Jo ran the last 10 with me.
July 7th 12 miles  Completed all 12 miles 1 day early on 7-6-12.  I am awesome.
July 14th 20 miles Didn't quite make it,  did it split in the day 11.5 in the morning and another 7 that night, but was too tired to get to 20.  Will have another chance 3 more times to make the distance.
July 21st 14 miles Half marathon race in Hoffman Estates, plus 1 more mile to make 14!
July 28th 22 miles  Ran this on the 25th, it was hard, but I did it!  Walked a lot in the last 4 miles, but it was 98 degrees out in the last 4 miles.  Basically I ran the first 18.
August 4th 14 miles    Completed on Aug. 6th, and felt great, just a sore hamstring.
August 11th 20-21 miles
August 18th 13 miles
August 25th 20 miles
September 1st 10 miles
September 8th 13.1 miles ( I have a half marathon already scheduled that day)

Big Day September 15th 26.2 miles in Dayton Ohio.  Air Force Marathon!

In between all these days you are to run 2-3 times of 5 miles or more each. In addition a lot of cross training which could include weight lifting, biking, swimming, or anything, but those things were mentioned most.

So there you have it the training schedule.   Now as I’ve thought about my race and how I’ll get through it I decided to dedicate each mile to family and friends and here is how that will go:

Mile 1 is for Jason
Mile 2 is for my son Caleb
Mile 3 is for my son Daniel
Mile 4 is for my son Jared
Mile 5 is for my son Brenden
Mile 6 is for my daughter Alyssa
Mile 7 is for my son Scott
Mile 8 is for Chris and Jim Clark (Jason’s parents)
Mile 9 is for Jason’s brother Adam and his family
Mile 10 is for Jason’s sister Chelsey and her family
Mile 11 is for Jason’s brother Jess and his family
Mile 12 is for Jason’s sister Lindsey and her family
Mile 13 is for Jason’s sister Adrianne and her family
Mile 14 is for Jason’s brother Lance and his family
Mile 15 is for Jason’s brother David and his family
Mile 16 is for Jason’s sister Gillian and her family
Mile 17 is for Jason’s sister Kaitlin
Mile 18 is for Jason’s brother Ammon
Mile 19 is for my brother Matt and his family
Mile 20 is for my sister Jan and her family
Mile 21 is for my friend Christy who I’ve known since I was 7 years old
Mile 22 is for my friend Rodona
Mile 23 is for my friend Stephany
Mile 24 is for my friend Tracy
Mile 25 is for my friend Rhoni Jo
Mile 26 is for My Mom and Dad

The last .2 of a mile is for me!