Getting ready for next year!

96 Kilometers? Are you crazy? lol. I barely finished my marathon but it was walking the last few miles. I admire you for doing the all night ultra! I do not think I am up to it - but it sounds like loads of fun. I might try it here if they had one for sure!

Yes, I am a little crazy! I will be walking it though and not running it like the elite guys who did it in 10 or 11 hours last year. The terrain is pretty steep and slippery in places, with lots of creek crossings too, so you end up wet and muddy usually as well which makes it more difficult. The challenge is based upon the heroics of the Aussie soldiers during World War 2 when they held off and beat back the much larger group of Japanese soldiers on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea. I actually started a discussion a few months ago about it here: http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/2682548.aspx

96 km is roughly 60 miles mommyboo, so it is a long way to walk. Especially when you are doing it up and down hills through the mountains. Those events with a central campsite sound awesome as it would create a real community atmosphere. Love it! And yes, perhaps you should be an ambassador for them! The Kokoda Challenge has several checkpoints, but each are in different areas. Support crews can track the teams online though, so they can estimate at what time to arrive at the next checkpoint. But it is still hard work for the support crews and they have to stay up all night or work in shifts as well.

Haha - you got jokes tonight! lol! You should look into the walk-a-thons. Most 5Ks are designed to be a walk or run event. You might try training for that. Some marathons and half marathons also allow walking - but it's usually some of the smaller ones.

WEll you know that there are some people who run barefooted now. You could go barefoot instead of flipflops! lol!

Train for a walk-a-thon? Are you kidding me? I've been walking now for almost 58 years. If I don't have it down by now, I don't think training is gonna help? Really, if I could wear close toed shoes, then I would probably do it. My flip flops are usually the recipient of some pretty scornful looks when I get anywhere close to one of those events.

I've only been running competitively again since late 2010 (Dec) but I think I'm hopelessly addicted . Do you have local races near you, Mac? I take advantage of localish races when I can, since they tend to be cheaper and you don't have to apply and hope you get chosen in the lottery to be accepted OR submit a qualifying time to run. I've never run in Chicago, although I've been there a few times. I hope to get a chance to get a guaranteed into NY someday, but the qualifying times for guaranteed entry are actually steeper than Boston! Many people still get in NY to run but without a qualifying time, you're waiting on the lottery system and not guaranteed. I recommend Utah as one of the most scenic and beautiful places to run - and the running community within Utah is HUGE! Everybody is active there and as a result, there are tons more community events based on healthy active living and lots of families who participate with their small children. It's such a neat thing to experience! Bill - I never used to be big on traveling because of what a pain it is and how expensive. When I travel for races, I usually do it with a team, we pay for our race in advance and we usually drive, so there's 6 of us splitting the cost of gas for one vehicle, 6 people splitting the cost of one hotel room or being able to stay with friends if any of us has friends or extended family near where we travel. The trips are also fairly short, we might be gone four days - a long weekend plus one day. We have a fabulous time, and there's no gambling, usually no drinking, and we get back being all pumped to do it all over again! After normal vacations I spend too much, I'm too lazy, I have a few too many drinks, and when I get home, I have no desire to move, unpack, or be social lol.

Wow! I am in the presence of greatness! I have just been running 4 years and the marathon kicked my butt! I am trying another one this year to see if I can do it any less painfully. If I do I'm all in. I can't travel too much but I did go to Wichita KAnsas to do my first marathon. I'm going to Chicago for the half next fall too. I threw away my training plan after the marathon and decided to sort of start over. I took a break to regroup first. Last week I did a 5 miler on either end of the week this week 6 milers. Next week I'll do 7's. I'll do that up to 10's on either end then I will keep one around 10 and build the other on up to 20 and eventually to 30 is my goal. I think if I can do the miles in training I'll do better in races.

Sounds like you get up to some pretty awesome stuff mommyboo. Taking trips revolving around sporting events is great. I do that often as I also compete in archery comps fairly regularly. I replied to your question in my comment box above.

Yes, my injuries have healed finally! I ran my 50th race yesterday and it was totally pain free! I am looking forward to next year and planning on many more happy miles!

Wow! 50th race!you are really a keen runner.You are sure to find much pleasure in it.It goes without saying you are very strong.

yeah, my first marathon was more like walking, or crawling! I hope to do better on my next one. If not I will stick to the half marathon. What about other races? DO you plan to keep doing other distances even though you don't want to do another marathon?

How did you train for your marathon, Mac? In my research, it seems like many people start to struggle between 18-20 miles, so the major drop out point seems to be just past 20 miles. Did you use a fuel belt or a pack and did you fuel well? I used my fuel belt and carried two bottles on it, and I carried clif blocks, my running fuel of choice. I probably don't drink as much as most people, and I also didn't eat as many clif blocks as I should have, but my gameplan is to start fueling early, so usually around 5 miles, and I just sipped water off my bottles until I had gone past the halfway point, after that there were not as many people so aid stations were less crowded and it was easier to grab a cup of water and keep going. My advice is to use a marathon training plan and if you can't stick to the specific days of the plan, at least make sure you stick to the minimum mileage written in the plan for each week. For several months leading up to my marathon except for the last week I ran back to back long runs on both Sat and Sun every week, a tempo run on Wed, a semi-long run on Tues, easy run Mon and Thurs or one of those days off. I really like half marathons - they seem short now after having run a 50 lol.

If you run another marathon, use a pace team leader. I loved my pace leader, he was awesome - I left him between 12 and 13 miles and finished about 3 minutes ahead of him. Without having that support for the first 6-7 miles though I might have gone out too fast, I'm not good at judging pace so I really need someone to pace off in a long race.

It is good that you knew the types of changes that needed to be made in order to help yourself begin to feel better. I have had to get back on my regular diet plans lately too. I just know I feel a lot better when I stay on a certain eating and exercise regimen. Good luck with feeling better soon!