My Secret Weapons for France!

With our flight for Paris taking off in just 10 days (!!!), I'm putting the final touches on all my race gear for the World Championships. I've put in a bunch of training miles wearing all the Team USA uniform combinations the past few weeks, and with a few scissor snips here and there, I feel confident I'll be able to go the distance wearing the official gear. ...and I'm super-excited right now as the final piece of my running gear just arrived on my doorstep this morning. Behold...my custom-made secret weapons!

I can't wait to go for a spin in these puppies after work today!

It's good that they came today too, since yesterday the "official" predictions for my bet with Jamie Donaldson were sealed in their envelopes. The rules are we have to try and predict the other's total miles run, and after the race, the closest guess (over or under) wins. The exact details of what the winner gets are still being worked out, but I'm just happy Jamie didn't know about these secret weapon sneakers of mine before making her prediction. These things have to add 30 or 40 miles to my total, right?!!

I conjunction with Jamie's current post, I'll open things up for everyone to predict my total miles here. I'll have to think of  a nice prize to give the person who get closest to my actual total. It'll probably be something unique from the race in France...like a program or the timing mat or whatever I can steal from the course and smuggle back through customs. Whatever it is, I'll be sure to make it cool, so guess away!!

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock

Three weeks from today we'll be revving up our engines in France for the 24 Hour World Championships. From my perspective, I feel confident knowing all the hard work has been done over the past 4 months of focused training. Aside from the little hiccup with my hamstring that slowed me down for a couple weeks, I'm more than happy with how everything has gone. I was able to lower my average mile pace on my daily loop from 6:50/mile to 6:20/mile, day-in and day-out, without any dead legs to deal with during the week. While the Philly 100 was a bust, all of my other long runs were complete successes. The highlight for me was a 40 miler on the Mt. Vernon trail (which is paved) that I finished in 4:20:15...that works out to a hair over 6:30/mile pace and a 2:50 marathon split. I'm not bragging, since there are obviously tons of people who can run circles around me, I'm just pointing out that for me, my results have been great during this training period.  In a nutshell: I'm ready for France!

Starting today I've slowed the pace down to get fully in tune with how I'll have to run in France. Running 9s today felt a little awkward to start (as it always does), but once I settled in and started to visualize the loop in France, I had to smile. I know the mental aspect of running 24 hours is just about as important as one's physical abilities, and I feel 100% ready in both areas at this point. If only I didn't have to wait 3 more weeks!

Bull Run Volunteer Fun!

What a beautiful day for the Bull Run Run 50 Miler!  Sunny skies and a light cool breeze the whole day meant fast times were ready to be run along the historic Civil War trail. Returning champ Leigh Schmitt definitely got that memo and was a few ticks ahead of Tom Nielson's 6:17:24 record pace when he passed through our Aid Station with 5 miles to go. Proving his talent is other-worldly, he kicked it in even faster over the last leg to set a new course record of 6:09:58! Not to be out-done, Aliza LaPierre also broke the course record on her way to the women's title in 7:23:06. Huge congrats go out to both of these speedsters!! Full Results Here.

On the volunteer side of things, Lizzy and I had a blast working the early-morning Aid Station (mile 7.2 and 11.4) before moving down to the Marina (mile 21 & 44.9) for the rest of the day. Here are a few scenes of the fun!

Seeing as how I have a PB&J every day for lunch, I was definitely put to good use here. Likewise, Tammy Massie's patented 'X' slice on the end of the banana halves makes peeling them super-easy when on the run. She's so smart!

Proving we had some serious skill on display, check out how EVERYONE ELSE is just staring in awe at us!

Speedy Chris Reed gets by with a little help from his family on his way to a 3rd place finish in 6:51!

Another speedster, Amy Lane (from my home state of MA!), has us laughing as she cruises through on her way to a 4th place finish in 8:02!

Lizzy, Queen of the Soda Pop

Enjoying the beautiful weather with Tammy...much nicer than the last time we met on this trail in December during a 30-degree day.

Trash cans and dead branches in the background mock my self-photo-taking ability. 

 Inside the Marina Building I found this sign that had me laughing out loud. Yes, those are about a half-dozen "Erg" machines between me and the phone on the wall. ...Poor Coach Jim.

All in all, just a great day to be outside to help 400 or so runners enjoy 50 miles of springtime trails. Can't wait to come back next year and run it myself!

On a side note, I was able to run every day this week with diminishing hamstring pain each day. I'm pretty much back to 100% today, so I can definitely say I made the right call to stop in Philly when I did last week. Now I'm right back on track in my training plan for France!