Marathon training, new gear and the Disneyland Half

Just 32 days until the Nike Women's Marathon. I'm so excited about this race I could just burst! I ran a hilly 18 miles on Sunday  (well, 14.66 technically with the remaining miles on the TM) and it went SUPER! A little negativity around the DNF crept in a couple of times, but honestly, I was having so much fun on such a perfect morning for a long run that I didn't give those thoughts any power over me what-so-ever.

After tackling this local route, I'm feeling ready for those San Francisco hills! My Garmin timer somehow was stopped around 5.5 miles and I missed about 1/2 a mile.  I decided to run the last 3.5 miles on the TM at home so I wasn't overdoing it with the hills. This was a lot of work in itself!

I recently purchased a Hydrapack and this was my first time using it. Isn't it super cute?! I wish I'd considered trying the whole 'backpack' thing before. No more heavy water belts, no more chaffing my forearms on the Nathan bottle tops (or leaking from the bottles) and best of all, no more hot spots on my hip bones and lower back. I swear I could bathe in Body Glide and still get raspberries with the water belts.

In other good news, I ran the entire distance in my new Pearl Izumi Streak II's. I think this might be my favorite shoe of all time. I had not run further than 5.5 miles in them prior to this long run so I was a little curious as to how my feet and my calves would feel after 18 miles of minimal support (minimal for me anyway).  The balls of my feet were a little sore at the end, but nothing significant. My last long run will be a 22-miler on the 24th of this month. This is about the point where I dropped out of Grandma's and it's really important to me (emotionally) to get to that distance again BEFORE I hit it again on the marathon course.  All those San Francisco hills will be challenging enough!

I'll be ready to post full reviews on both the PI Streak II's and the Hydrapack after the marathon when I've got some good mileage and experience with both!  I was also just given a shiny new pair of Lunar Glide 3's to test. I can't WAIT to get some miles on these shoes! More so, I'm looking forward to a comparative review of the LG 2's with the the LG 3's. It's hard to believe I could love a Nike shoe more than I already love my LG 2's, but I'm ready to show some more love to the 3's if they treat me just as well. :-)

Nike Lunar Glide 3

Some of our Galloway group members and pace group leaders ran the 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon on September 4th. In the 5 years I've been running in this event, I have never had so much fun or been so relaxed during an event. I don't think I'll be trying to go for a PR on that course anymore after how much I enjoyed taking my time, laughing and dancing along the course with friends and stopping to take pics.....  It just doesn't get much better than that!

Several of us really got into the spirit of the event by dressing costume.

And of course hubby and I stopped by Jeff Galloway's booth at the Expo to tell him how much we were LOVING our program and thanking him for not only changing our lives, but the lives of each and every one of our members. He is a true class act and I am SO proud to be a part of his quest to make running fun and enjoyable for anyone!

 Happy Running!