Runner Email 10 October 2007

Greetings Runners! Less than three weeks, and it's getting pretty exciting here in Grand Rapids!

First item--I ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. (Blog entry at cooladventures.net). It was HOT! Many of you had the same experience. Many of you registered in the last two days as a result. WELCOME TO GRAND RAPIDS!!

So, here's what happened. We hit our cap of 1250 runners last night! That's the full marathon, we still haven't hit our cap of 850 for the half, but we're getting pretty close.

Yesterday I got on the phone with our medals guy and ordered another 400 finisher medals for the full marathon. I.e. we're increasing our cap to 1650.

Now, those of you who have friends who are "on the fence" should probably tell them to get off of it NOW. Otherwise, it might be too late by the end of the week.

OK, that's what I have to say about that. Now on to this weekend...

On Saturday, Ken (the course guy), Francine, and I and probably a few others will meet at the YMCA at 6:30. Probably do about 18 miles or so on the course. On Sunday, Dr. Rick and several others of us will be running up to 20 miles. He's planning on a 5 mile "warmup" run at 7:00, the half-marathon course at 8:00, and then maybe a 2 mile cooldown. Yeah, Rick's a little crazy, but Lance only beat him by about a minute last year at New York, and Rick's out for revenge this year, so his training is relentless.

As for agua on our course, we'll have plenty. (That's water for all you English speakers.) And cooling stations? We have the Grand River running along most of the course. Jump in any time you like. Swim upstream toward the Finish Line if you need to.

See you all shortly.

and the adventure continues....
Don Kern