The season is OVER!

A long 15 months, the season has finally come to an end. 5 marathon or farther races in the last 6 months. Ouch.

A season that started in March of 2009 coming back from taking a few months off after a running a frustrating 3:21:06 in Dallas in December of 2008. I ran determined and ran feeling completely unstoppable in my quest to get myself to Boston, and then get even faster. Highlights along the season included 4 one hundred mile weeks, three of which consecutive, a solid California International in December(3:08), an eye-opening and fun Bandera 50km trail race in January, a hard and challenging workout at the Austin marathon(3:10), and then a 3:03:06 in Boston, exactly an 18 minute improvement in my personal best over 13 months of hard work.

Pace wise I took my marathon down from a 7:41 per mile (or 4:45/km) to a 6:59 (or 4:20/km) in 16 months. Not too bad for just 3.5 years into running, huh?

With a mostly fun, but at times a little rough Stockholm marathon now behind me, i look forward to taking June off from any formal training and returning in 6 weeks to the group to load up for a "train through" marathon in October in Portlamd, while also building up high trail mileage for the Bandera 100km trail race in early January of 2010, then switch gears and take that huge base and turn it into speed for Boston in 2010.

Have a week left of vacation in Sweden and I've been asked to provide more Swedish-Cuisine posts, mainly about all the Fish i'm eating. Too bad I haven't had any fish yet! hahah

But I did have swedish version of Cheetos today 'Ost Bågar'. MMM... I'd forgotten how yummy those are. And my mom made a great 'Coq au Vin' and claims it's simple to make and will give me her recipe.

Tomorrow I'll pop open the bag of Dill and Parsley flavored potato chips! I can't wait!