I ran four road marathons during the qualifying window for Boston 2013. My best one was 3:25:27.  Barely over one second per mile kept me from possibly going to Boston this year.

Had I been paying attention to the Specialty Coffee Association of America's convention schedule, I may have even considered a charity entry to the marathon and hit up the coffee convention and the marathon in the same week. Not sure if I could run Boston as a charity entry though...

My plan, if I got into Boston would be to run it for fun, bringing me across the finish line at about the time the bombs exploded.

I am glad all of my friends who ran this year are safe. It is a bit bitter sweet though, considering all of the people who got hurt. 

Hooray, it is the new year.  I am going to steal one Sam's 2013 New Year's resolutions and try to submit blog entries more often.

Does anyone else out there get tired of running in the "off season"?   I have been slacking as far as my running goes since November. Having a nasty cold for the past couple of weeks has not helped matters.

Originally I had planned to switch to cross country skiing for the winter, but the lack of much snow and the January thaw has not helped much.

What is a good way to be motivated in the winter?  Running in the dark sucks. I am starting to feel like a vampire, never seeing the sun.

I went for a run last night with the wednesday winter meet up. It was fun, after I finished coughing up a lung.

Happy running in 2013!

The Half Voyageur trail marathon was held on July 14th 2012.  A few frantic weeks were spent scouting out new trail, due to Jay Cooke park being closed by the flooding.

I had spent the past two Saturdays helping with getting the trail ready.  We had to make the mission creek section passable and weed whip and mow many of the sections of trail.

The Magney Snively ski trails was the area I helped with mowing the Saturday before the race.  Kris had rented a pull behind ATV mower, which Tone pulled through much of Magney. I followed along and helped pull the thing out of the muddy areas.  We had a runnable path down the middle of the trail, no way one can run through the grass without cutting up one's legs, grass is sharp and makes paper cut like scrapes.  So, when we got to the Magney I noticed that the city had come through the trail again with a much larger mower, the trail was well mowed for the race

I woke up on Saturday and my stomach was not feeling great.  I got my stuff ready and headed out to the race.  There was a line at the registration tent, lots of race day entrants.

I got my stuff ready, my first race with the new hydration pack, hopefully it will work ok.  I lined up at the start next to Ron; usually we are fairly close in pace.

The race starts, along the DWP and up the hill to Spirit Mountain. Just past the zipline the course turned back down the hill, instead of going along Skyline. For some reason the large number of pink ribbons and flags head down the SHT was not obvious enough. I was lucky and was warned by a runner who had gone off course before I had gone too far, only about 20 feet.

This section of trail is quite pretty and scenic, but going back down a hill I had just run up, does not appeal to me.

Aid station 1, I had some water and a sip of coke and felt a bit queasy and ended up dry heaving 50 feet after leaving.  Maybe I would feel better later; after all I was still ok as far as time.  My goal for the day was to finish ahead of the sweeps.

The trail to Aid Station 2 was smooth rolling well mowed XC trail.  I made a mental note of trying to find out who did the mowing.  Aid station 2/5 was manned by a bunch of people from the Duluth running company's Marathon training group.  It is always fun to see familiar faces at aid station.  One bonus to the different course was the fewer number of aid stations to have to set up and staff.  Working an aid station can really suck if there are not enough people.

I still was not feeling well and ended up moving slowly through Jarrow's beach. Luckily there was not much traffic when I was going through.

Aid station 3, I was able to get my s-caps from my drop bag. I filled my pockets with ice and continued shuffling on to the powerline loop.  The powerlines survived the flood pretty well.  I ran past a few people that should not have been ahead of me. I think a few people either started early or missed the SHT section between Spirit and Magney.

After going back through the aid station and continuing along Skyline, I ran into Sam, who was helping at an intersection.  I must have not looked too good. Sam ran along with me for a bit to make sure I was ok.

Back through the Ely's peak loop and the DRCTG aid station. Tom had shown up with a plastic trumpet that he was using to herald the arrival of each runner. I think it added a festive note to the aid station. It was nice to be able to hear the aid station was just up ahead through the woods.

Due to my stomach being upset I consumed an unapproved beverage at the aid station. It turned out to be the only thing that I had consumed all day that did not make me nauseous.

I had more energy and was able to run faster for the next several miles, almost to the finish.  The last big uphill sort of did me in. I slowed down and enjoyed the scenery along Knowlton creek. I ended up finishing in 5:28.  If I could just learn to run in heat...

I have to compliment Kris on his being able to pull of holding the race this year. I liked the change in course.

Last Saturday was the annual Get in Gear race.  They have a 5k, 10k and a half marathon.

Due to my schedule with training for Grandma's, I opted for the half marathon.  I have done Get in Geat the past three years.  It is fun to do a few races a year in the twin cities.  I always get a few positive comments about my Duluth Running Co. shirt.  I have decided that it is because Duluth is a popular vacation destination for the city dwellers and I am lucky enough to get to live here.

The weather was better than last year, no pouring rain at the start.  It was cloudy, drizzling and chilly.

At the start I looked around for Clint, as he had wanted to start the race together, but I was unable to find him.

I had twisted my foot/ankle running the Chester bowl trail on Wednesday, not real bad, but it was stiffer than usual. I started slower than I wanted to, hoping to shake things out.  Clint passed me just after mile 1, and he was running faster than I coulod at that point.

Between miles 3 and 4 I picked up a bit of speed. I passed fellow blogger Randy at mile 4.  Randy was running the 10k.

Miles 6 to 9 were a bit of a struggle. I downed a gel and pushed on.  At the turn around I got my second wind and started to pick up speed.  My pace dropped from a 7:29 to a 7:18.

I managed to get across the finish line in 1:36:54, not to bad considering a sprained foot/ankle and the cold conditions for the day.