Pictures from Mis-behaving Party

Some pictures from the Spring Season Mis-behaving Party!

Mentor Buddies - Jenny, Me and Steve



Me and Coach Steve



Craziness ensuing...

Things I learned this weekend...

Things I learned this weekend courtesy of the NJ Marathon:
1. Chocolate GU is repulsive after 22 miles. Vanilla from now one please.
2. Gatorade really is the drink of champions.
3. Local marathons are very different then big city marathons. Running through people's streets/neighborhoods, not so much fun
4. On a loop course (each loop equalling 13.1 miles), miles 12 and 13 are very depressing. Having everyone yell "Only 1 miles to go" or "You're so close" when you really have 13+ miles to go is not a great motivator.
5. TNT truly does have the best coaches :)
6. Coach Ramon and his cowbell will make anyone smile at mile 26.6

I did it!

That's right - New Jersey is done! I had a pretty good race. Started out a little too fast and paid for it during the second half. Still finished in 4:25 which I am very excited about! I took close to 40 minutes off of my previous marathon time, which is un-real. I am thrilled! I am very sore today though - my body hates me (in a good way). Hopefully will get a massage tonight - that will definitely help with the soreness. YAY for me!

This is it!

This is it - the marathon is finally here! I can't believe its here already. These past 5 months of training have flown by. Only 4 days left!

Ran the Alumni fun run on Sunday - was a blast. Great to see a lot of participants from last fall.

The run on Sunday served another purpose for me: it was race #9 of 9 to qualify for the New York City Marathon next year. That's right - NYC 2008! It's going to be awesome!

Send off

Tonight we are not having a group training session, instead it is send-off. Send-off is were we get all the details of the weekend (hotels, flights, pasta and victory party tickets, singlets, etc). It's also we were get last minute details about training, what we should be doing in the next 2 weeks and etc. Also gets everyone super excited for the weekend.

Only 12 days until the marathon!

Fall Season

As hard as it is to believe (given that the Spring season isn't over yet), Fall season has begun. For Fall season I will be mentoring for the NYC Marathon and running the Chicago marathon. This is particularly exciting for me, because I have a lot of family in the Chicago area and am looking forward to having them there. We just had our Fall Season Mentor Kickoff meeting followed by a social (Coach Michael even bartended). Great way to start off the season. Training for Chicago officially starts on May 12 - just 2 weeks after New Jersey. I am nuts!

And so it begins...

Well, I have decided it was time to create a blog to document all my running craziness. Give people a chance to see what I am doing and how training is going.

As many people know, I am training for the New Jersey Marathon on April 29th (ok, so this is a couple of months late seeing as how I am already most of the way through training) as a member of the New York City chapter of Team in Training (TNT). For more information on TNT visit: www.teamintraining.org

Also make sure to check out my personal fundraising page: http://www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycSPodzio1

I will also be running the Chicago marathon on October 7, 2007 - mark your calendars! In addition to participating, I will be mentoring participants and helping them to cross the finish line. Will be a great season!