Elevation Insanity & The Strength Within...

So this happened today...

I'm only doing the Half Marathon but for some reason the "Congratulations" doesn't clarify. I wonder what it would say if I had signed up for the 10K?

I'm only doing the half for three reasons:

1. The race is in July and there is no way I would be ready for a full marathon by then.

2. I want Chicago (the city of my birth) to be my first full marathon so I'm not going to run a full before Chicago in October

3. The elevation for this course is insane....INSANE!

so yeah.... not doing more than 13.1 miles of this craziness

The half will be on the tail end of a work conference trip. I love traveling for work and when I get to attend conferences it makes the trip that much better! When I heard about the conference location, one of the first things I checked out was the weather. It's supposed to be amazing running weather (especially compared to what July temps in Florida will be like). So what does one do when one has to travel for work during a marathon training cycle? One looks for races to run of course! That's how I discovered the Morgan Valley Half Marathon. I got excited about it before the reality of the elevation sunk in. One of my work friends asked me how I planned to train for the hills and I said...

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I'm kidding. I know it's important :) I plan to build in some hill work by running the bridges nearby. I know that will not compare to an elevation of over 5,000 feet, but I will get as prepared as I can and use the race as another training opportunity. I have zero finish time expectations for this race (ZERO), but...

I'm making progress slowly making progress with my push-ups. It's been a challenge but every day I'm getting a little bit better... 

Some days I see more progress than others :(

I think I need a dedicated push-up coach like Sully had...

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I'm committed to being able to complete a set of perfectly performed push-ups by the end of the month...

What's the hardest 30 Day Challenge you've ever done?

What's the hardest half/full marathon you've ever done? (Why was it hard?)

How do you train for a race with hills?