It's All Over But The Crying.

Mesquite Marathon Age Group Winner's Prize

  I did an easy 2 mile jog today, that's it. Training for the Mesquite Marathon has now ceased.  I know This Guy and me both like short tapers, mine was just over one week. Doh. I had to rush it because of not running in Italy, and then getting sick and feeling like crap for a week after we returned. And not the good kind of sick where you vomit and have diarhhea and lose 10lbs., but the bad kind of sick where you have just enough energy to eat and drink but not do anything else.
  Sooooo, I wanted to get at least four 20+ mile training runs in, and because of time constraints I needed one last long run on November 11th to do that. Then started the 8 day taper.
  The weather on race day looks to be perfect, 58˚F and sunny. What could go wrong?
 Portage and me are really looking forward to this trip, I can't wait to show her Bryce Canyon and Canyonlands National Park, both of which I've seen. We are also 'sposed to visit the In-N-Out Burger and the Heart Attack Grill, both in Las Vegas.

Bryce Canyon Looks Other Worldly.

Canyonlands National Park

 I've got high hopes for Beaver, our #1 Pylon runner*, to bring home a Cowbell. He had some kind of weird virus a month or so ago, hopefully he has fully recovered. I'm not sure how the Captain is running, he just came off a tough 7 hour suffer-fest 50K at the end of October in Cave Creek Arizona. As for me, I'm pretty sure I will get a marathon PB, I only have to beat 3:51, done way back around 2004 when I was fat. Of course I was 7 years younger too. I would like to go sub 3:30, but having never come close to that before, I know many things can go wrong.

 So that's that. "The Tage" and me are NOT looking forward to the 3:30am wake-up call. I couldn't find any results for the half-marathon from years gone by, so I'm not sure if Meanie has a shot at a cowbell.  When she is not busy being mean, she is a good runner.
   Does Beaver have another sub 3:00 marathon in him? Will Captain take off like a rocket, then hang on? Can Digger qualify for Boston, and then not run it? Will someone be packing a cowbell in their luggage for the trip back to Canada? Tune in on Saturday night/Sunday morningish to find out!

Awww Yeah. Heart Attack Grill.

*Cyrus has a legitimate claim to being our #1 runner, but he's not coming to Utah.