"Winter" Marathon

I had an internal conversation with myself after I ran the Singapore Marathon a year and a half ago and decide amongst myself that it was too hot and humid to run a marathon in Singapore even though it starts in the dark of the night. Settled.

So last year I signed-up and ran the Singapore Half Marathon and was completely happy with my decision. It was a good warm-up race for the Texas Marathon.

But then I started thinking and looking around for a winter marathon that I could run this year. The end of the year is going to be busy again. Tori will graduate college in December. I am low on vacation since we have traveled so much – which is a good thing. So traveling somewhere for a marathon is pretty much out of the question.

Then I got this email yesterday:
Standard Charter Singapore Marathon 2011 opens for registration on 23 June

So I am thinking about it. It sure is convenient to take a taxi to the starting line. Surely I can run faster than 4:20 (my time in 2009). Maybe I can even throw in some speed work for this one. I should probably stop having conversations with myself.

I will decide in the next couple of weeks.

Last time - sort of

Jakeb and I ran the MacRitchie trail around the lake yesterday. It is one of our favorite runs in Singapore. We started running it shortly after we got here two years ago. Yesterday was the last time Jakeb ran it as a resident of Singapore and a resident of his parent’s home. Needless to say I am going to miss running with him on a regular basis.

When Jakeb was younger I had to slow down from my normal pace so we could run together. Yesterday Jakeb was the one that had to slow down.

I am proud of Jakeb and I look forward to seeing where life takes him next.

Jakeb – Run on…

New Zealand vacation with a marathon thrown in

On Friday June 3rd we left Singapore for another New Zealand vacation. This time Tori went with us.

On Sunday Jakeb and I were scheduled to run the SBS Christchurch Marathon. I wrote in my previous post about our plans to run easy so we could run later in other places in New Zealand. Well … Jakeb ran 4:01:53 and I ran 4:03:57 - so much for taking it easy. Andrea, Tori and Anna walked the 10k. It was cold and sometimes rainy. The race is very well done, especially this year since they had to move it from Christchurch to Lincoln Township because of the earthquake. The course was rural and small town and I liked it a lot. There is nothing like running a marathon in New Zealand.

After the marathon we loaded up in our rented RV and drove first to Lake Tekapo. The next day we went to Mount Cook where Jakeb and I found the energy to run a little over 8 miles on the Hooker Valley Glacier Trail. Surprisingly we both felt pretty good.

Then on Thursday we walked (mostly) and ran some up to the summit of Ben Lomond and back – almost 10 miles and over 5000 feet of elevation gain. The summit is 5735 feet.

The rest of the time we saw a beautiful country from the widow of the RV and as we walked through it, we ate good food, drank good wine beer and cider and had some awesome family time – just the five of us…