Posts Tagged ‘Parkway’

How will I come around the mountain?

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | Tags: , , | 4 Comments »

For some reason when I think of this weekend’s Blue Ridge Half Marathon, I think of this song (and yes, this is the cheesiest of the cheesy versions I could find):

But in all seriousness, I’m really looking forward to this event. Besides a one-mile race in 2006, I’m pretty sure I haven’t been a part of any other inaugural events. I also am rarely impressed by an event until it happens, but so far I like what I’ve seen from race officials. The communication online through their website, Facebook and Twitter have been impressive, as well as the media stories I referred to in my post yesterday. I am often frustrated that races don’t use social media tools to build a buzz around their race. For this being a smaller race, they’ve already done more than what I’ve seen from Shamrock.

It’s impossible for me to come up with a goal time for this race. With an elevation gain of nearly 1,400 feet with a mostly uphill first 5 miles, I’ve never done anything like this. 1:50? Two hours? Or is 1:45ish realistic? Will I be able to fly downhill after painful uphill miles? I don’t know. It’s just something I’ll have to figure out once it starts. Or figure out after it’s over and try again next year. No matter what, it’ll be a course record. A PR is completely out of the question on this one.

Why April?

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

I’ve learned from my history … I am not repeating my previous horrible Aprils.

  • April 2008: Faced with foot problems, I ran just a little more than 30 miles total with 6.2 coming in one race.
  • April 2009: I was happy to take a “rest month.” I logged a little more than 30 miles. Two weeks later I was at the doctor finally figuring out what was wrong with my feet.

But honestly, I have headed into those two Aprils ready to take a break after doing the Shamrock Half. This year is different — I want to keep pushing and build on the momentum of that race. I’ve never, ever, ever capitalized on my training before. I train for ONE race and I’m done. Well enough of that.

That’s why this month I am committed to running every day in the month no matter what. Yes, my health comes first, but it’s going to take something crazy to pull me off the road.

But there’s been something nagging at me for a while with wanting to do more than streak. I love racing and better yet I love a good challenge. So thanks to various factors, I am going to be running the Blue Ridge Half Marathon on the Parkway in Roanoke on April 24. It promises to be one of the most challenging races I have ever done with a total elevation gain of nearly 1,400 feet and a total elevation gain/loss of nearly 2,800 feet. Check out the course map and elevation change here. Basically it’s all uphill for more than 5 miles before coming back down.

For more information on this race, visit www.blueridgemarathon.com. Details are also on Facebook; you can also get updates on Twitter by following @BRM26pt2. If this sounds familiar to you, I did write about this on my blog back in July, but there’s been so much change in my life since then that I had ruled out doing the full marathon a long time ago and had pretty much ruled out doing the half considering it was so close to Shamrock. But things change …

So, April, take that.