Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Time sure does fly when you are having fun.. YIKES!

May 2009 was my first (and until now) my only marathon. I ran the Wisconsin Marathon in May of 2009. As many know, I am not by any means a fast runner (averaging a 10-10:30 pace). Finishing in 5hrs 21min was an amazing accomplishment for me. The most difficult part of the whole thing (aside from the 26.2 miles) was knowing the pick-up bus was just blocks behind me. Every few blocks I kept looking behind me to make sure I kept in front of it. That alone was a mental struggle. Many times I thought why the f**k am I out here! With the run done, I promised I would NEVER do this again.

Well, I am breaking my promise.

October 2013 I will be running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
My training partner, Amanda Heinz, will be running her first marathon ever! Her sisters will be out there running as well. Since Amanda and I pace about the same, we decided to train together.

So, training. Lots of it!
We are following Hal Higdon's Marathon Novice 1 training program with a slight modification (no 20 miler!).
We have just started week 3 of the training program. So far, we have clocked in 59 miles.
Week 3 (this week) looks something like this:
Sunday - Crosstrain
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles
Wed - 5 miles
Thursday - 3 miles
Friday - Rest/Crosstrain
Sat - 6 miles

With 102 days (as of today) to go, training will increase for the next 12 weeks, then we begin our taper.
The cool part, I am also a FLEX mentor for the Wisconsin Team in Training program who is doing Chicago. I will be training and running and communicating with other Team in Training members along the way. EXCITING!

I will have MORE big news coming in the next couple of days.. so stay tuned!

Take Care
GO TEAM!
Liz Bower
ALL for a Cure Race Director