London Marathon

Did any UK-Y's run yesterday?  Congrats if you did!!!

I'd love to hear your stories.  I'm considering running this next year to hopefully qualify for Boston in 2008.

Also - WAY TO GO DEENA KASTOR!!!!     She won the women's race in 2:19.36.  It was her second win in London and she broke her own US record at this marathon.  It would have been a really great race if Paula Radcliffe wasn't injured.

Wow good luck in qualifying for Boston - it is tough.  I once thought about it but quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to get the time required for my age group...maybe when I am a bit older.

I am doing Edinburgh marathon in June!  Looking forward to it but also nervous.

geetak - Good Luck in June!  That's Awesome! You must be getting to the real meat of your training!  What's your weekly milage up to?  Do you train alone or with a group?

I'll have to look up the race information because if I'm not ready by next April, maybe this on is a possibility.

Boston is a HUGE goal and I know it's going to be really tough.  I had trained for a sub 4 for my last marathon - BUT - had some stomach issues around mile 11 - NOT FUN - I finished in 4:40 not my greatest time but considering the pain I was in, I was lucky to finish.  The experience stayed with me and I cancelled NYC last year and have taken a little running break.  I'm going to run NYC this fall, but it's not a Boston qualifier - too many people. So I was thinking, London in 2007...it's a fast course and less people.

That's great - sounds like you should have a very good shot at doing Boston then.  I am not even sure what my qualifying time would be now - something like 3:30 maybe?  One of my friends in Chicago was trying to qualify using the MEN'S time as her goal!  She didn't get it - had a hard race - but easily met the women's time.   

I am up to about 15 miles now on the long runs - supposed to do a 16 mile run this weekend but my training has been screwed up with trips to the US (first week of April), Paris (last weekend) and Sardinia (this weekend).  Hard life, yeah I know (quite lucky me!).  Anyway I think I'll be ok but am a bit worried.  I will see how it goes this week - I am now running my long runs on a weekday because of the weekend trips.  I'm supposed to do 4-8-4 or something like that during this week and then the 16 for the long run.  Next week is supposed to be 18 - yikes!

I run alone although my husband meets me sometimes part way through.  He is only up to about 7 miles.  As long as I have my iPod I seem to be ok.

My original goal was to do 4h but now I know I won't get that because of the training schedule that I've messed up.  I did Chicago in 4:30 so anything under 5h for Edinburgh will be fine for me.  Heck even over 5 is ok since Edinburgh is so much hillier than Chicago.  It is very tough to get a place in London (I tried) unless you are doing it for a charity so that's why I did Edinburgh.  Also I've never been there and it seemed like a fun place to visit.  Finally I hate training in the cold - one of the best parts of doing Chicago is training during the summer - and I was not going to do any long long runs in London rain!  So June seemed to be a better time for me.  I'm thinking of Paris next!

It's sound like you are on track!  Plus - you've run a marathon before so your body & mind knows what to do. 

I travel for work a lot too and have done many long runs in cities all over the US.  The hardest is when I had to be in the HOT weather cities - Phoenix, Vegas.  I started those long runs at 4am in the dark to beat the heat.  I've also trained through VERY snowy and cold winters in the Northeast US - Two extremes that SUCK.  But I always looked at it being part of my mental training. 

I love my iPod!  I always refused to run with music until I started training for marathons 4 years ago.  It gets lonely out there but with the correctly timed playlist - heaven! 

Paris is on my radar too!  If I can't get into London.  I'll let you know.
Keep me posted on your training - feel free to PM me.  I'm always interested in others marathon training.  I'm good at motivation too!