Heading Home

It's Sunday morning and we're sitting at the airport in Reno getting ready to head back to Denver. One week ago at this time I was 2/3 the way through Vineman, finishing the bike and heading out on the run. At the time I was wondering what possessed me to take on such a challenge. One week later I'm already thinking about doing it again next year!

But that's a long way off. In the meantime, I can focus on my next goal -- running the Chicago Half-Marathon on September 9. Events like Vineman and the Chicago Half are what keeps me motivated to get up early to run (or swim or ride). Without goals like this, it is too easy for me to hit snooze.

So over the next month I will be focusing on my running with several of my colleagues (at left) who are running in the Chciago Half Marathon to help kick off "Beef Week" in Chicago, home of this year's National Beef Cookoff on September 11-13.

The Chicago Half is only my third half-marathon ever...and third this summer! My goal is to finish under two hours, at a pace of about 9 min/mile. That's about :45/mile faster than I ran the Rocky Mountain Half back in June and about 1:45/mile faster than my Vineman run (also a half-marathon).

The past week has been a wonderful time of rest and relaxation. I went for some long walks and short runs so my legs wouldn't forget how, but tomorrow morning training begins anew. Better grill up some lean beef tonight to start refueling my legs!


Daren