Countdown to Blue Ridge

One of my training runs this weekend in my Blue Ridge shirt

So here we are, less than a week until "America's Toughest Road Marathon" Blue Ridge Marathon in Roanoke, Virginia. I have been looking forward to coming back since Emir and I ran it last year. It was such an awesome atmosphere and course that we knew we had to come back. Of course when they asked me to come this year as an official race blogger I was leaping for joy! And as it turns out I have cousins that live about 25 minutes from the start line who we were able to spend some time with last year while at Blue Ridge. This year my mom and my uncle decided to join us for the trip down so they can spend some time with our cousins and that's not all, the kids are coming too! It's going to be a big family road trip down to Roanoke! I really can't wait and I'm so excited that we will have the kids and our family there to cheer us on.

Celebrate Boston with ENERGYbits!!



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As I'm sure most of you know, the Boston Marathon will be taking place this coming Monday, April 21st. Over 1 million specators and 35,000 runners are expected to attend, which is more runners and spectators than any other year. To celebrate this historic occassion, ENERGYbits, which is a Boston-based company is exhibiting for the first time in the Boston Marathon Expo and will be offering FREE samples at their booth #1934. The Expo is held at the Hynes Convention Center Friday April 18 - Sunday April 20, just blocks away from the Boston Marathon Finish line. Click here to see their full press release

To Be or Not To Be Coached?

My first half marathon

Never once since I've started running has getting a coach crossed my mind.  The only reason I even started running was to get back in shape and feel better.  I just wanted to get back to feeling my normal self before I stopped swimming, went to grad school, had a baby and gained a bunch of weight in the process.  My goals were always the same from my first 5K to my first marathon, just finish. Emir is always on the computer researching everything we do in our lives, so I let him find what other runners considered to be the best training plans for beginners.  Then I had a second baby.  It was just hard to get in all the runs I wanted as a new mom of 2 vs just 1 especially since I was a nursing mom.  So I would always just run, never did any cross training or strengthening.

Ocean Drive Marathon - Tailwind vs Headwind

Ready for...beer?

Basically I've been waiting for the Ocean Drive Marathon since I crossed the finish line at the NYC marathon in November.  I was so excited that I took another 5ish minutes off my marathon time that I knew I wanted a spring marathon to try to keep chipping away towards a BQ.  Since we were already planning a big 10yr anniversary trip for end April/early May I knew it needed to be in March, local and inexpensive.  I only knew of one race that fit the bill and I signed up for the Ocean Drive marathon (read my experience from last year here) literally the day after NYC marathon.