OBX Marathon

Ok, after several months of reviewing marathons and limiting down my list to marathons in the first couple of weeks of November, I have finally settled on a marathon.

I will be heading to the NC coast on November 9th '08 to run the OBX marathon. The OBX marathon fit nicely into my marathon time table. I was looking for a race which fell in the first few weeks of November because it will basically give me two months to recover. I would then have the spring to rebuild my self for the summer '09 racing season.

When I ran my marathon in the spring, I really only trained about 6 weeks and only did about 6 runs of 20 miles or more.

This time around, I am roughly about 8 weeks out and I have already put in a set of 20 milers. This past weekend, I ran 24 miles on the trails at Francis Beatty Park in south Charlotte by the Garmin. To translate what "By the Garmin" means, it means that I probably ran some where between 25 to 26 miles because the Garmin measures distance on a straight line. Most trails are anything but straight. In fact you are mostly running switch backs which causes the Garmin to really be measuring long miles.

But back to the topic at hand, based on the course and my training, I think I can run close to 2:38 again.

After reviewing the course, I only see a couple of trouble spots. Those spots being the 2 miles on a dirt road and the 1/2 to 3/4 mile on a wood chip trail. I am hoping my trail efforts will adqueately prepare me for it. There is also the causeway bridge crossing at 23 miles but I have already been practicing for it. I have similar raise up from house where the road crosses 485. Everytime that I run my Wedgewood course, I surge to the top of the bridge. By training for it in my daily runs, I will be ready for it on race.

It would be great if I could run faster than the Snickers, but whatever I do, I will be extremely happy to have completed my 4th marathon. But I do have a burning hungry in side to go as fast possible on race day.

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