The eve of the race is here!

After a good nights sleep and a relaxing morning, Amy and I headed out for a somewhat cursory tour of Cleveland! Funny how this weekend getaway to explore a new city turned into a race with some sight seeing fit in!

After grabbing lunch at the Chocolate Bar (yes they had real food too) we took a "shuttle" (30 minutes!) to the Cleveland Health and Fitness Expo where we picked up our race packets, got our goody bags and did some shopping.

It was at an Expo center and was huge with over 200 vendors selling everything from apparel to 100 kinds of energy gels and chews to....well every running accessory you could think of. We bought a few things including a spi-belt, some apparel and even new phone holders that fit in the palm of your hand! 

Afterwards we hit the rock and roll hall of fame, which we had not nearly enough time to see, saw the better part of the Indians / A's game at Progressive Field and had a delicious carb filled pasta dinner to cap the evening!

As we sit in our hotel room, just feet from the starting line, just 9 hours and change away from 7am, we feel ready as we will ever be.

It's been a long 30 days but we are both ready to realize a crazy idea we had just a month ago and wake up at 5am tomorrow morning and run all over Cleveland with 15,000 of our new running buddies!

Stay tuned tomorrow morning for a pic or two from the starting corral!

A few pre-race notes

Since this is only our second organized race we are not quite sure what to expect in Cleveland, especially since this isn't just some 5k race. We chose to stay at the Hyatt Regency at the Arcade in downtown Cleveland. Why? Because it's the host hotel of the race and they had decent rates. :)

As we check we see the whole place is ready for runners (and race officials and other Rite Aid employees) to descend on the town and hotel. The check in girl asks if we're running in the race and we say yes. She seems excited for us (more on that later) and hands us a paper. Attached to it were 2 coupons for a boxed breakfast to be picked up Saturday afternoon! We were very concerned previously on how we were going to eat so early Sunday morning but apparently not anymore! Personally I thought this was a great gesture by the race/hotel to make the race the best it can be. It's the little things, right?

Also the hotel has a free shuttle to the running expo where packet pickup is and they even moved check out time on Sunday back to noon to give runners more time! 

So far I couldn't be more pleased with how the sign-up, communication and "perks" part of the race has gone. Can't wait to see the expo today!

For now here's a pic of our beautiful hotel!

Welcome to Cleveland!

After driving for 6 1/2 hours we have finally arrived in Cleveland!!! 

Day #30: Final Run!

  It's Day 30, which means our 30 days to the 10k are up!  We have hit the gym, ridden the BWI bike trail and ran ran ran!  I asked us to grade our training efforts this evening and we agreed a B was a low end grade and considering all the other stuff we had going on, A- it is.


  I would like to congratulate Amy for being such a hard worker and helping us stick to the program.

  All in all, Amy ran 31 miles and I ran 36 miles overall in the last month!!!!!!  I know that if a month ago you would have told me to run over 30 miles in a month I would have laughed at you!  But we did it and now we are more than excited to see the city of Cleveland while running through the streets with 20,000 fellow running friends!

  I know we have been back posting for a while here but  starting Friday the 16th we will be live posting, documenting our trip!

  Stay tuned for some pictures and stories from the state of Ohio!!


  Oh and here's my run from Thursday :)

Day #27 through #29

Due to final exams and the Boston Bruins unfortunate demise in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, we were forced to suspend our beginning of the week activities.

 It's not easy working full time jobs, going to college, caring for a child AND trying to train for a 10k race.  We had to sacrifice a bit of strength and cross-fit training to get our work done.  Let's hope it doesn't bite us in the butt!

 Either way, we are looking forward to testing our abilities Sunday in Cleveland!

 Day #30 and the final pre-race run is next!!!!

Day #26: 5 Miles on Mother's Day!

 Even though we skipped the 12 mile bike ride, we arent cutting our runs out, so we had 5 long miles to run this morning.

 We didn't get started as early as we wanted and it wasn't until after 10am that we began our run. It was already 70 degrees out and the sun was shining bright.  Amy had a particularly  hard time with the sun, partially due to her not having a hat! (Note to Amy: "just wear the hat!")

  She was a tough cookie, though, and fought through it (she got my hat into the 4 mile!) and we finished those damn 5 miles.  6.2 seems awfully daunting as of now, but it's definitely doable and I am confident that we will at least finish the race. 

  With finals coming we have basically one more run (Thursday) before we go to Cleveland.

Day #24: One Week Until We Head West!

Friday May 9th and it's one week until we head west for the race.  We are feeling somewhere ready but final exams and Boston Bruins hockey are really tightening up our schedule!

Tonight was a short run and we had to do it seperately due to Mother's Day planning as well!

 Tomorrow we will take off because we are just too darn busy, but Sunday we'll tackle 5 miles!!!