Chicago is ONLY about 2 weeks away, who's in?

Chad, whats up???

How are you holding up and are you ready???

1. What's your goal? Watch the race, eat lots and lots of pizza from Due!

2. What's your PR? 2:44. Ugh. What shoulda, coulda, etc. Been injured for about 3 years now. Got orthotics for the first time this week, and had a GREAT pain-free run for 30 minutes last night.

3. How did the training go? Quite well for the 15 or so that I coach that are heading to Chicago. Although the 110+ degree temps this summer were quite trying.

4. Ready yet? Everyone is ready to go!

5. Surviving your (their) taper? Yes. They have two hours this weekend, then easy, easy, easy after that.

6. Are you local or flying in? Flying in. Staying near Oakbrook for CHEAP! Much easier than staying in the city...cheaper, quieter, and much more relaxing.

7. How long are you staying in Chicago? Thurs - Mon

8. What's your race number? Bzzz. We are fielding three teams. Susan is 135 I think.

9. Any OTHER plans besides the Marathon while in Chicago? Grew up there, so I plan on hanging out and enjoying all the sights and sounds of the great city--did I mention I am going to eat lots and lots of pizza???

10. Comments? I have run it three times, and watched it countless times...but this race is a BLAST to watch. Knowing the city well, it is easy to bounce around and see the runners in about three or four different places. Hope to see my runners do well...tough to beat last year though, watching Paula set a new WR and talk to her post-race (and also see Weldon just WIRED about what she just accomplished!)

Good luck Chad! Good luck Jason!

1. What's your goal? - trials qualifier

2. What's your PR? - 2:49; cim 2001 (crap weather)

3. How did the training go? - i won some, i lost some . . . fortunatly i won the important ones

4. Ready yet? - i still don't feel ready so i think i'll be just fine ;)

5. Surviving your taper? - i'm fine but i think i'm driving dan nuts already

6. Are you local or flying in? - flying in from the city by the bay, baby!

7. How long are you staying in Chicago? - we're staying sunday to par-tay . . . so get that baby sitter and grab that gal of yours and let's go!

8. What's your race number? - 156

9. Any OTHER plans besides the Marathon while in Chicago? - dan, and 6 girls in leather pants

10. Comments? - look out magda, we're coming after you next! ;)

-- kk

OK guess I should take a turn.

1. What's your goal? SUB 2:20, don't forget the sub part, I did late time.

2. What's your PR? 2:22:03 (see what I mean?)

3. How did the training go? Good and bad. Not a great year for me, but I am in shape and ready to go.

4. Ready yet? Didn't I just answer this. OH YEAH, let's do it. Want to get there and finally qualify.

5. Surviving your taper? Yeah, it's feeling good so far.

6. Are you local or flying in? Flying from Sacramento.

7. How long are you staying in Chicago? Till the following Sunday.

8. What's your race number? 85, can you believe that, what were they thinking? ha.

9. Any OTHER plans besides the Marathon while in Chicago? Too many to list. Sears tower, Six Flags, Mueseum, Aquariums, Pizza, Navy Pier, etc, etc, etc.

10. Comments? Are we there yet?

I'm not running Chicago, but running around the same time. Is it OK if I play too?

1. What's your goal? 2:37

2. What's your PR? 2:44:50

3. How did the training go? Pretty good for the most part. Ten 20+ milers over 3 (?) months, two weeks over 100, probably averaged 70 MPW so far this year. Huge difference over last year.

4. Ready yet? Chomping at the bit.

5. Surviving your taper? Sort of.

6. Are you local or flying in? Local to a local marathon.

7. How long are you staying in Chicago? N/A

8. What's your race number? ???

9. Any OTHER plans besides the Marathon while in Chicago? N/A

10. Comments? Man, I love running! Good luck to everyone this fall.

No you can't play. Sorry taper madness setting in (actually don't have it YET).

KK don't know if I will be up for a party after the Marathon, probably feel like death, we will see. Kids can come with I guess. Don't have the babysitter connection across the country. They will be in CA time still, so we can keep them out late, ha.

1. To finish, it was sub-2:22, not sure now, but to finish and gain valuable course information for a future effort since I may run to my potential on this course one year. Maybe set a PR.

2. 2:38:04, 2001 Disney World (4th Place)

3. Was going great, PR'd on road 5K at 15:10 and road 20K at 1:05:45, but my newborn daughter started waking up during the night and the lack of recovery brought upon injury 3 weeks from the marathon, so I missed 10 days of running. Am back now, but not sure.

4. Ready? Not like I want to, but am thinking Joan Benoit. If my quad responds, I'll still run the best I possibly can. Will probably be a little less aggressive.

5. If you call not running for almost 2 weeks a professional taper, than I hate it. Haven't been this depressed in a while, but I'm coming out of it since I'm running again. Been trying to read as much about Joan Benoit in '84 as possible. ;)

6. Flying in from Houston, Texas.

7. Flying in the 11th, leaving the 13th.

8. #1310.. I think I got the "competitive start" :)

9. Just enjoy the weekend and experience with my wife, child, and parents, who I flew in to see me qualify for the Trials.

10. I haven't run a marathon since 2001, even though I was signed up for New York 2001 and Grandma's 2002. Both those times I missed ONE week of training and cancelled because I didn't think I'd be prepared. Now, I've missed a crucial 10 days, but am still running because of financial commitments and curiosity and because I need the marathon experience. Maybe I've been avoiding it for too long. It was supposed to be my first serious debut (Disney was right out of college). Oh well. Life is life. And..

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU GUYS/GIRLS GOING FOR IT, FROM OLY TRIAL QUALIFIER ATTEMPTERS TO THE GUYS TRYING TO SUB 4-HOURS!!! This will be interesting, at the least and a test of my mental abilities, as well as physical strength.

Miles & Miles-

I was just thinking about sending out just such a message, only on e-mail. My answers:

1. Goal(s)- great day: 2:22, good day: 2:24, just a day: sub 2:30.

2. PR - 2:30:49.

3. Training - Not as good as I hoped, but not as bad as it could have been, especially after missing much of the winter due to injury.

4. Ready yet - Getting there. I originally was thinking about just a sharp 2 week taper, but I became convinced that 3 weeks was the way to go. I'm not feeling really good yet, but we have 15+ days left...

5. Surviving Taper - We'll see...ok so far. After the last 5 weeks of 90, 101, 100, 100, and 90, I'll run 70, 50 and 26 miles pre-race. I will be maintaining some shorter quality work, though. One nice thing is that my wife and daughter are heading to the Chicago area (where we're all from) a week ahead of me, so all I'll have to do is work, run (not much), and sleep. Oh, and eat a little - which I'm trying to make sure I don't overdo as I cut the mileage way back.

6. Local or flying in - Flying in from Colorado.

7. Stay - Flying in late Wednesday, leaving to drive back the following Thursday. Splitting time between my parents (Olympia Fields) and my wife's parents (Sandwich).

8. Bib # - #177 - that can't hurt.

9. Other plans - I agree with the pizza comments (I believe we'll be having much of it on Sunday afternoon). I'm going to a friend's wedding on Thursday morning (I know, odd - but it works out well for the trip). We may take our daughter to the Shedd Aquarium on Friday when we go to Chicago to pick up my packet. Other than that, I'll mainly be catching up with family & friends.

10. Comments - I'm looking forward to it. I'm anxious to see just how many people will be going after trials qualifiers - there could be quite a large group to run with. I'll have my brother on his bike again to supply me with water & Accelerade at several points on the course - that worked perfectly last year. All the real training is pretty much done - just time to make the legs happy again.

So how 'bout you? What are the answers to your own questions? You had it rollin' for quite awhile this summer...

BDG

GRod, don't let anything stop you. Just getting mentally prepared and take care of that quad (ice, ibu, stretch, etc). Just believing in yourself is half the battle. Tell yourself you can do it AND BELIEVE IT and you have conquered the challenge. Go for it.

Hey I answered, see above. Just waited a little bit to hear it from others. Please change your great day goal to SUB 2:22 for me. Don't want to miss by 2 1/2 seconds like some other loser did, ha.

Goal(s)- Great day: sub 2:22.

Done.

What are your thoughts on pace / halfway goal?

For me, I'm really not sure where I'll be. It's somewhat difficult to judge pace coming from altitude. I ran 18M @ 5:40/M a few weeks ago, so I'm strong. I just don't know how comfy I'll feel at 5:25 pace. My current thoughts are to see how 5:25/5:30ish pace feels for awhile and make adjustments from there. I just don't want to say "I'll hit halfway in 1:11:00" and then proceed to blow up. At one point I was thinking "qualifying or bust," but now I'm just hoping to run as fast as I can.

You should be ready to crank a good one - get after it. I hope to see you at the line, but if not, I'll watch for you on the tape of the race. Good luck to you, and everybody else going after it in Chicago.

BDG

I am going even splits as always. Sub 1:10 at the half. See you there. Hopefully I will see you from the awards podium afterwards (kidding).

1. What's your goal? Sub-2:25

2. What's your PR? 2:32:52

3. How did the training go? Pretty good. Averaged around 80-90 a week. Got in some decent long runs (for me) 3 x 22.5 (previous longest running going into a marathon was 1 x 20). A few decent races, but feeling anxious.

4. Ready yet? Feeling anxious. I am concerned about getting a decent position in the competitive start without having to stand around freezing for 40 minutes.

5. Surviving your taper? Not sure, usually go with a two week taper, but have feeling kind of toasted, so shift to the 2 week and 5 day taper (translation - got tired of training this past Tuesday)

6. Are you local or flying in? Flying in from San Diego.

7. How long are you staying in Chicago? Friday to Monday

8. What's your race number? 998

9. Any OTHER plans besides the Marathon while in Chicago? Just planning on checking out the city with my wife.

10. Comments? Pretty lame, but to everyone running - from Cool Runnings the movie- "may peace be the journey." (Please note this has no reference to any political situations).

Miles and Miles (Chad). What does your taper look like as far as mileage the last 3-5 weeks? Just interested. I am running MCM on the 26th of OCT and looking at a 3-4 week taper but am curious what others do. My taper plan as of now looks like this: peaked at 124 miles but last 6 weeks looks like this - 108, 111, 90, 80(with 10m race), 75, and 70 including the marathon. Looking for sub 2:30 at MCM.

Looking at one of the tapers above I saw a much more extreme taper but I don't think that is the norm.

1. What's your goal? 2:40 would be a good day; 2:37 would be a great day!

2. What's your PR? 2:46:37 (my marathon pr is very weak in relation to my 1/2 pr of 1:13:51 earlier this year)

3. How did the training go? About as well as I could expect; As usual, hot & humid here in the summer - Feeling much better since it has cooled a bit

4. Ready yet? I passed a big test on Sunday; 15 miles alone at race pace on a certified course on a humid morning

5. Surviving your taper? I'm doing a two week taper; So far, so good

6. Are you local or flying in? flying in on Sat. morning

7. How long are you staying in Chicago? just for the race, back to work on Tuesday

8. What's your race number? 551

9. Any OTHER plans besides the Marathon while in Chicago? hoping the Cubs will be in the playoffs; Then I'll go to a pub & watch it on tv

10. Comments? Any advise would be helpful; I've been in pr shape for my last 3 marathons, only to hit the wall hard. 2001 Boston was the last, 2:40 pace for 20 mi >49 min for last 10K. Everyone tells me I needs to take more gatorade or GU. I always get stomach cramps late in a marathon & find it hard to take anything.

Goal: Stay Warm, it could be cold out there cheering all those runners! Plus see Katyk in leather pants! Well, maybe not!

PR: I have watched a race for a hour and a half, so it might be a stretch to be out there for 2 hours, 45 minutes.

How did my training go: Been doing a lot of standing to practice. Went to a couple of concerts and a bike race just to practice pushing through crowds and looking over people.

Ready: I think so, otherwise I might have to hit Starbucks a few times.

Taper: Taper for what!

Flying in! Thought about road triping, but I figured the Rockies would be getting a little rough right now, and on race day it might be hard to find a place to park in Downtown Chicago.

What Number?

Hoping to see the Cubbies in the playoffs, definitely staying away from any amusement parks!

I am hoping the race gets over early enough so I can either catch the bears or the cubbies. What can I say, casual marathon watching is not my kind of sport.

Best of luck to all involved. Hope the weather is not a factor. Am running a december marathon instead this yr.

one observation...... several who have posted in this very nice thread are hoping to lop huge amounts off their prs..... some on what the letsrun 'insiders' would call modest mileage..... thats great if your training leading up to the race predicts such performances..but going out too fast in hopes of the 'dream race where everything just came together' usually leads to bonking.

Run well and smart.

1. Planning on sub 2:22 for trials quailfer.

2. 2:29:34 at motorola in feb

3. Training has been going great, was on my 10 week at over 100 with 8 of them at 115. Have run a couple 20 milers at 5:40 pace and felt great. Had a great workout on wed going and then on the last mile i busted my achiles tendon and cant run at all right now. Went to the dr. today and thinks i should be fine but needs a lot of rest. Just disapointing to have this happen when everything has been going great, and the race only 2 weeks out.

4. Thought I was up until wed now just praying to be healthy.

5. Havent started it yet, it starts on monday with two weeks one at 90 and the last at 70.

6. Coming in from detroit.

7. Just the weekend.

8. 1917 but might have a better one

9. None

10. If I am able to heal in time I plan on makeing the trials. Going through the half at 1:10:30 and staying at that pace for the rest unless I feel great, then I will pick it up. If the foot doesn't heal up in time then I will run a 2:25. Wishing for the best right now. Best of luck to everyone else there.

Not in your guy's caliber but hoping to get in the 3:10 range and Boston qualify. Mileage in the 60-70 range for the last 18 weeks while tweaking but not damaging a lingering injury. Did two half marathons at marathon pace in my buildup with ease and set a half marathon PR of 1:25 at another event. Unlike my prior Boston qualifying attempt I won't pace myself out of contention this time. Can't do anything about the weather, though.

Running long this weekend and a short spurt speed session in the upcoming week. Then all light stuff while dropping my miles. Coming from the West Coast on friday afternoon. Go Cubs, let's score some runs!

Best of luck to everyone going after their Trials dream.