Mark your calendars- The Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon & 1/2 Marathon (& 5 miler!) is coming up June 19, 2010. Last year, I trained for the Mayor's 1/2 marathon with my sisters and my aunt, running all our Saturday long runs together. The four of us had a great time and it really helped the miles fly by! We then heard from so many people who said they wanted to train for the 1/2 or the full marathon but really wanted people to run with. This got me thinking about organizing group long runs and the idea for Heart & Sole Runners was born! This spring, I'll be training for my 3rd Marathon and am so excited about our group long runs!
Our first round of Saturday group long runs will start up on April 3rd. Long runs will consist of training runs for both the full and 1/2 marathon (although if you want to join us you are welcome to run with us for as little or a long as you like:)Many club members will be training for their first distance run, while others may be looking to set a new PR. Whatever your running level is, we'd love to have you train with us! There are plenty of 5 & 10k runs throughout the summer we will participate in as well, which might be a good goal for beginning runners. Although I've found that there is no better way to push through those long hard runs than to have some moral support and fun along the way! If you can do 3 miles by yourself, you can definately run 5 miles with other people! We will all be there for each other, ready to encourage everyone to run further and faster and spread the love of running, one member at a time!
Runs will follow our training schedule and will be held each and every Saturday April 3rd-June 12th. We will meet at my house, across from Colony Middle School and will run various routes from there. We be meeting at 6:30 am- that's right, 6:30 AM. I know this is early, but some of us are training for the marathon here! We've got to give ourselves time! We'll be leaving promptly at 6:35, so be sure to arrive early if you'd like to stretch and warm-up. This is a "run-at-your-own-pace" type of group run. Our daily route(s) will be mapped out and water/Gatorade will be provided at the start and finish of the run, as well as in the middle of the longer runs. Runners are encouraged to wear hydration packs, camel backs, etc.
We will be following a Hal Higdon Marathon and 1/2 Marathon training schedule. If this is your first 1/2 marathon, you should be able to run 3 miles x 4 days a week by the start of the 12 week training. April 3rd's long run will be 5 miles. If that seems too difficult, consider training for the Mayor's 5 miler instead, but still come join us for our Sat. runs!
Marathoners, our long runs will start with week 7 of Hal Higdon's Intermediate level training program- our April 3rd long run being 14 miles.
Heart & Sole Running Club membership dues are $5/year. This will help cover cost of Gatorade, cups, coolers, etc. We will be holding our first meeting and a Q&A about Marathon and 1/2 Marathon training on March 24th, 7pm 5199 Silver Springs Circle, Palmer, AK. Come get training information, help plan routes and meet other runners!
If you have any questions, please email us at heartnsolerunners@gmail.com or call me, Lori Luff at 907-982-5088
