:-)

deciding not to race, but thinking of you all. much love!

Great races to all, we're cheering for you!

Eden! Have a blast!

Eden!!!!

Got to run EL with Mark & Shannon, then WH/PH with Bob J and Shannon. It was a great "A" run and felt fast and fun on a beautiful morning with excellent company. I think the excitement of Team Eden racing in Portland carried over into our morning run. Vanessa had a good 7 miler and then we got to walk a mite together afterwards. Life is good in the woods.

Go Team Eden! We want to hear what's happening.

The goal for todays run was to feel good, and I did. 8:57 average and feeling fabulous!

We need some news from Portland!!!

I have to start getting ready for work soon.....the suspense is killing me!

Evan won the half: 1:09:30

Matt F. was fourth in the marathon, shattering his goal to run sub 2:40 with a finish time of about 2:37:30.

Judson, Matt H. and I won the relay division.

But, having left Bar Harbor at 3:00AM, we had to be back for Judson to work at 3:00PM, so we had to leave Portland before other finishers came in.

Good to see Frank out there on the course, supporting Team Eden. I can report that Spotter, Michelle, Julie, Karen, Ginger, and Mike all looked pretty good when I saw each of them go by at around mile 11.

First 5.5 early and alone, last 6 with Shannon and Bob. Great run in perfect conditions.

Eagerly anticipating more news from Portland. Congrats to Evan, Matt and the victorious relay team.

10 miles, Bass Harbor Rd from SWH out and back twice for the hills. Feeling OK. Still struggling with a cold and not so much sleep. I was thinking today how amazing it is I can just pop out 10 miles on a Sunday afternoon. I am feeling fit.

Time to mow the lawn:)

Congrats to everyone in Portland today!

16k (8k twice) around the Dave McNaulty route. Warmed up over the first loop and worked over the second, especially on the hills.

6k of 400m and 800m intervals with 30 second rests b/w efforts and a couple sets of sprints (for kicks) in the waterfowl park.

Gym: leg extensors 60 reps @ 140 lbs; flexors 45 reps @ 60 lbs; + 35 pushups and core muscles. Jogged 2k home.

Of the fourteen runners at our XC meet yesterday, I saw ten others doing speedwork (the grim sort) in the misty morning and the other three are still severely hungover. Everyone ran well but not well enough, three PRs for the women and four PRs for the men not withstanding, and we know what we have to do: just give it.

Photos of the men at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62401&l=b0c9f&id=654016213

are on cool running now...

r./

but of the flat, slow sort, not the interval, hilly sort like Anna. Good grief, that's some workout, especially after a PR-packed XC meet yesterday!

Great job in Portland, everyone! Sounds like it was hard not to notice Eden there today. Congrats to Evan, Matt F. and the Relay Kids. It's pretty fun running a marathon that way, isn't it?

Hello folks. Well, I ran a great 20 mile race. Unfortunately, a marathon is apparently a little over 26 miles. Oh well. At 4:03 I missed my goal "by that much" - tip of the hat to Maxwell Smart - but I finished. Everything gave out around mile 22. But Karen and Ginger both passed me while I walked, and they looked GREAT!

Thanks to all for the support and encouragement. Frank, as always, was in place with some much needed water, and I saw Brian driving by early enough that I still looked like a runner. Well, off for now and hoping to leave shortly to head back home. See ya.

The clock wo,n as I could not run a BQ. I was hitting or under the necessary splits through 16mi to a max cushion of 3m 7s. I started fading slightly but was in OK shape until mile 23 with a small 40 sec margin. You would think I could run 8:20's for 3.2 miles but my legs shut down. At 24 I had to pack it in and walked the last couple miles. Yet again humbled by the distance.

The weather good except for the shivering at the start. I really liked the course except for an odd out and back for a few hundred yards on a dirt road just before the half.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement from Team Eden. Congratulations to all the racers out there.

I saw a couple of folks on my way out to Mile 8 and then was able to see the whole Eden parade as they came up the hill at Mile 17. From what I could tell, you all really worked it! Ginger ran tough over the final miles and managed to tune everything else out and focus on keeping her rhythm.

As I was heading down to Portland this morning lots of cars racked with go-fast bikes passed me going the opposite direction. This afternoon on my way back to the island the same cars passed me as they were headed south. I guess that means there was a long ride on the island today..

The Cadillac Challenge was held today on MDI. It's a 100 or 72 mile (your choice) supported ride traversing almost every road on the island. I don't know this year's numbers but last year there were over 200 riders. I rode 100 last year and an abbreviated route today. The new pavement on rt. 3 improved the event immensely over last year. I saw Dr. Dave out there and looked for Judy but didn't see her.

You guys all did a heck of a job. Michele, hope you're still healthy after an awfully long run on what I thought was an injured leg. Take care and recover! I want to hear more reports...

And I tried to get my dad to do the Cadillac Challenge. He wasn't biting at the idea of 100m in one day. One day--I'm a very persistent pesterer--he'll be out there.

I had a blast cheering (that is the easy part) in Portland today. Matt and I arrived just in time to see the start, but couldn't pick anyone out of the crowd. We headed up to mile 11 where I cheered for a good hour. Everyone looking strong and happy. I moved down to mile 21 not long after Matt picked up Matt F. I am so proud of all the great smiles I saw on Eden runners from mile 21 to the finish. I know many of you were hurting, but you would never had known looking at your faces. Great job everyone! You made running a marathon look like fun. Maybe I will join the 26.2 mile club again next October.

One of the greatest lessons I will take from this is to really be careful what I consume and make sure I take the proper fluids. My muscles started to ache in mile 17, far earlier than Sugarloaf, and were already beginning to spasm at mile 22-23. After it was over my calf muscles looked like there was something alive crawling through them; I found out later that it was from severe depletion of electrolytes.

There is a silver lining to all of this - I did PR (3:47 at Sugarloaf). I will take it as a lesson learned and train some more for Hyannis '09.

1st 5: 35:47
2nd 5: 36:27
3rd 5: 38:51
4th 5: 50:55
Last 10K: 1:02:27
Total: 3:35:27

I saw and talked to Michele - sorry to anyone else I missed. My mind was focused on my pain and I didn't look up very often. Glad to hear that Eden was well-represented, though. Congratulations to all the runners!

...I never felt comfortable in this marathon..my back never loosened up, I couldn't get into a rhythmic stride, I just didn't feel it. For me, this was a hard course. I think I do better with more hills! The flatness had a tendency to wear on me...Not anywhere near an A marathon, but I did learn a couple of things.

I found a product that didn't upset my stomach ~ YEAH!!! ~ and I found that taking in extra electrolytes the week before helped alleviate the muscle cramps I've been fighting in my other marathons. SO, not a great marathon or time (I know I'm capable of much faster and had hoped I would at least break my PR), but I was able to learn some useful information that I can take into the next marathons...

BTW ~ I got 26.41 on my Garmin ~ anyone else long??? I didn't start it until I crossed the start line, the first mile was on with their marker, but every other mile on my Garmin hit before their marker. My Garmin time was only .02 off my net time, so I'm wondering if the course was a little long.

A special thanks to Sara for taking my coat, my water bottle, and for running a bit with me! Frank ~ it's always a lift to see you out on the course! Thanks for getting me up that hill!

What a lot of energy and expectations and true testing at Maine. Great job everyone for getting out there and doing your best for the day at hand. Thanks for your race reports and telling us really how it is.

I did a little bit of a hike on Sat across Cadillac S Ridge to Eagle Crag with little complaint from my knee, so I'll be joining the First Strides group on Wednesday to see how far I can go running again without going under the knife (ok, arthroscopy)

I just talked with some seasoned marathoners at the XC meet and learned that it is very common for Garmin distance to be off during a marathon,sometimes as much as a mile.

Brian and I left at 3am and got down to Portland in plenty of time. What a nice day. If I was in shape I probably would have run the whole thing.

2 miles warmup with Evan and PJ. About 15 miles with Matt F.

His goal was to break 2:40 and on such a nice day I took a pretty aggressive approach to pacing him but I also knew he was cabable of it. We ran the first 7-8 mile eventual 2nd place who's name was also Matt and the two Matt's and I chatted quite a bit so I kneew it was comfortable for them.

5:46,5:58,5:51,5:52.5:50,5:51,5:48,5:59,5:50,6:05,5:57,5:59,6:00( halfway in about 1:17:30ish which I think was a PR for Matt), 5:58,6:05

Then Matt H. jumped in and took Matt F. to 21 miles. first split was 6:00, then 6:10,then 24:18 for the next 4 miles where Brian jumped in and I dont have any of the last 5.2 miles because I was busy getting back to the finishline.

Had to work that afternoon so after Matt came in Brian and I headed home.

Big week for middle school cross-country, with the Tigers scheduled for three meets in four days.

Yesterday was the MDI island-wide meet which was won by the Mount Desert boys and the Emerson girls, with the Tigers again taking the top three spots.

Then, today, Emerson went over to the Bay School in Blue Hill to make up last Thursday's meet which was canceled because of flooding. Short-handed on both squads, the boys placed fourth and the girls, given explicit instructions to control their race by holding back, still took another win.

Rest day for them tomorrow. Thursday they race two larger and presumably stronger teams: Lincoln and Brewer, with Brewer hosting.