Happy Halloween!

I can't believe October is already over. The month has flown by. November brings our next half marathon - we're both very excited! We're going to the Outer Banks, where our husbands will fish and we will run - can't get better than that!

Unfortunately, I could not talk my sons into going to the coast in November, but they are excited about having the house to themselves for a few days. Should I be worried? :)

Hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween - see you next month!

Compression

I have jumped on the compression bandwagon, folks, and I don't think I'll be climbing off anytime soon! It started with a few knee twinges - no real pain, just a tight feeling in my knee after a long run. I was also dealing with a lot of leg fatigue after long runs. So, I did a little research into some of the new high-tech running gear, and I found these:

And they are wonderful, and I love them. They are CW-X Pro running tights. According to the website (http://www.cw-x.com), the tights reduce fatigue and enhance recovery while helping to maintain stability. And they seem to work.

They are not inexpensive, but they seem very well-made. And feeling this good after a run? Priceless. I've got a 16-miler slated for this weekend - we'll see how the tights (and my legs!) hold up!

Athens

Here's a little inspiration for those of you who might consider visiting Greece some day, or running a marathon there, or both!

Look at that gorgeous water. Don't you want to be right here?

Or here:

And, of course, we can't forget the inspiration for the marathon in the first place:

Who could forget Pheidippides, the original marathoner, who ran

from Marathon, Greece to Athens to deliver a message?

Pheidippides, unfortunately, did not survive his run. Legend has

it that he collapsed and died upon completing his mission.

Melissa and I, on the other hand, have successfully completed one

marathon. We know what to do and how to do it. We just have to

maintain our focus - we'll have to keep training and keep saving.

We'll keep you posted!

Big Fat Greek Marathon Fund: $0

Goal: Unknown (they send out information in February)

Days until our next race: 18

Ch-ch-changes!

Ok, as we are wont to do, Melissa and I have come up with yet another crazy idea. We were looking through Runner's World and we saw an ad for the Athens marathon run on the original course. We both instantly said, "How cool would THAT be?"

For those of you who don't know, Melissa and I used to be very avid runners (Melissa more so than I) and then life intervened and we stopped running for a significant period of time. And our weight crept up, and our energy levels sagged, and we sighed a little sigh of envy every time we passed a runner in our neighborhood.

Fast forward to November, 2009 - we made a pact to get back in the gym and back in shape. And, slowly but surely, we've been working in that direction. Most recently, we completed the Women's Half Marathon in Nashville, TN with a finish time of 2:29:04. Yes, we took walk breaks, but we finished.

Our next big race is the Outer Banks Half Marathon (http://www.obxmarathon.org/site3.aspx) on November 14, 2010. I've signed up for the Disney Marathon on January 9, 2011 and Melissa hasn't decided what her next race will be beyond that. I'll let her tell you about it.

And here we are just before a VERY tough ten-mile run on October 10, 2010. Once again, though, we finished!

Big Fat Greek Marathon Fund: $0

Goal: Unknown (they send out information in February)

Days until our next race: 19

Happy Training!

Terri