a marathon in 2 weeks

First a quick update on training - I took the weekend off because I got distracted by other things going on with work, family stuff and house projects. So Monday morning I got a 6 mile run in before work - it was very dark but I had a head lamp and lots of reflective stuff. I also wore way to much clothing - which only came in handy when there was a head wind that was a bit chilly. I still felt kind of tired - maybe because it was 5a but who knows. It took a while to get warmed up and I just felt off but I got the mileage in. I was rather surprised that even though I did not feel fast my average pace was around 8:46 min mile which for 6 miles I'm happy with.

Last night Col and I went to the lap swim at Helen Madison pool it was great till the open swim started - during the masters swim we had our own lane it was great. Then at one point we had 5 other people in our lane all of which had no clue how to swim laps or lap swim curtsies. It was nuts. The only way we could even get a work out in was by doing 100s. The only benefit was it forced me to swim harder that we would have on my own. I pretty much had to stay right on Col's feet or risk being caught up with the crazy people in our lane - it was better if we stuck together kind of thing. I also manage to get kicked by people in the lane next to us a couple of times to make it the perfect work out... I was tired before getting to the pool but once we started I actually felt pretty good _ no shoulder issues and my form felt comfortable with out using the pull buoy. My average time for the 100s was 1:47 which was great and in the end we out lasted the crazy people and managed to get 2100yrds in. I'm mostly proud that I stayed so close to Col usually she blows past me and can even lap me - I know here shoulder is still not perfect but still I can think I'm making progress. Next time I'm pretty sure we will do the masters work out earlier in the evening instead...

Now for the news. I managed to get a place in the Nike Marathon down in San Fransisco on October 21st... Col is also doing the race so it should be fun. We are not setting any time goals and plan on just enjoying the day - no pressure. Luckily I have been keeping up my running to some extent so I feel ok about the whole thing. The trade off is I'm 90% sure I'm not going to do the Seattle Half Marathon. I'm going to focus on the Vancouver Half for my sub 2 hour goal and then of course Hawaii 70.3.