Chicago Marathon is around the corner

Here is a post we had written up early October 2006…

Both of us have been fretting over our lack of preparation for the big Marathon which is now in approximately 3 weeks! Manish has been running in spurts with wildly varying distances every weekend. He started out with a 18 miler, ran a few 13-14 miler and then ran a 22. The 22 miler was tough on him. The only good thing was one of his professors was with him. This professor is 10 years older than him, but runs like the wind. Manish was trying to keep up with his pace of 8:15 and could not keep up for long. But in the time he could stay with him, Manish started his usual discussion on his “dream” thesis project and somehow got talked into teaching a class on design of a membrane treatment plant that he had worked on. After this he kept falling back till everybody passed him and ended up close to a 10 min pace for the complete run! Anyway, we will see how he does in the marathon.

Anu has been running rather consistently but has not done the big 20 yet. We are thinking of doing that this weekend (Sunday). It is kinda tough to run 20 miles in a town which is maybe 7-8 miles wide. We will figure something out. Anu’s job involves being on her feet all day so that has placed a lot of stress on her feet (and legs) and she sometimes feels like she is injured. After being on her feet all day she feels like she has ran a marathon already! However, she has been plugging away and trying to run as much as she can. We ordered some recovery drinks and gel packs and hopefully that will give us the kick that we have been missing at the end of our runs!

Update: We both finished the marathon!  Anu shaved off 22 minutes from her previous (and first) marathon, and Manish did rather well also.  Manish is now determined to train hard for next year’s race and beat his PR.