Cellcom Green Bay Marathon

Well, marathon #2 is complete! The weather was in the low 50's and sunny! It could not have been better! The run started outside of Lambeau Field at 7:30 am. The first half of the course was through several neighborhoods in Green Bay. At the half way point the 4000 runners veered to the 13.1 finish and 1800 of us continued on to the 2nd half of the course. The 2nd half was along the Fox River. There was fairly decent crowd support throughout the whole marathon. The wall party at mile 20 was quite impressive with a giant inflatable wall and people that cheered several deep. I felt really good until mile 22 and all of a sudden locked up. The next 4 miles I was reduced to a hobble and a walk. The last half mile wrapped through Lambeau Field. Upon leaving Lambeau I noticed the finish line at the horizon and sprinted through the rest of the way. I finished with a time of 4:33:05. Although it was slower than I had hoped, I kept repeated the Pre mantra which held true, "I don't run to see who is the fastest, I run to see who has the most guts." Although I was no where near the fastest, I pushed myself beyond my perceived abilities which is what the marathon is all about!

Training so far!

First of all, I am training to raise money for charity while I train for the Green Bay Marathon! My goal is $250 and I am currently $30 short. Please go to http://www.firstgiving.com/danielverbout and donate a few bucks to help me get closer to my goal!

Training has been going fairly well. Long runs are up to 18 miles right now and they have been tough. I suspect this is because weight is up slightly and I have not had a medium distance run in the middle of my week. I am around 24 miles a week and am hoping to get up to 30 miles by the end of April. The only race on the calender is the St. Cloud Earth Day 20 miler in 3 weeks. So far so good!

Cellcom Green Bay Marathon

Six months ago I said I would never run another marathon again. Well, I signed up for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon on May 17, 2009. I am currently working on my base mileage and hoping to get up to 20 miles a week before the training begins in February. Goal is to lose 15 lbs before the marathon so back to the diet I come!

2008 Year in Review

Looking back on 2008 brings fond memories. I accomplished several life goals such as buying a house and getting married in October. I ran my first run longer than 13.1 miles. In fact, I ran 26.2 miles at Grandma's Marathon. I completed several half marathons, a 30k race, and several 10 mile races. Running was not all good during the year however. I learned the ins and outs of IT band syndrome that kept my mileage below my 800 mileage goal. Overall it was a great year and I look forward to what 2009 may bring!

Bear Water 10 mile and Twin Cities Marathon 10 mile

Its been awhile since posting. Fixing up our new foreclosed house, getting married in a week, and a low desire to run over the past months have kept me away from the board lately! First race was the Bear Water 10 mile a few weeks back. The race went pretty well considering it was my first race since the marathon. My goal was 1:25:00 but due to a tight field the first 2 miles it was hard to get into my pace.

Twin Cities 10 mile was yesterday and it went very well. I ran with my brother for the 6 miles until pulling forward. The final mile I dipped into the 7 minute mile range for the first time ever and took full advantage of the hill in the last half mile and posted a sub-7 minute mile! By no means that will be the norm but it was awesome to see my watch at that level. I am looking for more races so stay tuned!