5 Weeks Til Boston!

5 weeks from today, we'll all be wearing our finisher medals, drinking some good beer somewhere! This past week we did 18 miles on the Boston course (at Ryan's marathon-goal pace), and it felt GREAT, despite the rainy and windy conditions.

This coming week we both will be running the New Bedford Half Marathon. Miss Bethany has her sites set on a nice PR, while Ryan's just focusing on running a strong race, finishing with negative splits, and staying strong and healthy for upcoming Boston.

How's everyone else's training for Boston going? Anyone racing this weekend as well? Good luck if you are!

As promised, here are some more Boston 2009 pics to get you all excited for what's to come in 2010! (Here are our last pictures as boyfriend & girlfriend.)

Meeting the rest of our Greater New Bedford Track Club before the drive up

Athletes' Village

Next Boston Countdown post will feature the engagement location, and we'll be just 4 weeks away!!!! Woohoo!!

Bethany's Brother in Law

Eek! It's been awhile since we've posted! We are 1 week closer to Boston and we will resume our countdown next week on Monday. I just wanted to share with you something scary that's going on with my brother-in-law, Peter. He has been in the hospital all week with a Pulmonary Embolism, or blood clot in his lungs! 

It was pretty serious and he had some scary moments but the good news is he is going to be okay and may even come home from the hospital today.

Poor guy was in A LOT of pain for a few days but is feel better now. He had pain in his side starting last Saturday and on Sunday my sister took him to the ER and we were shocked when he landed in the ICU with a blood clot! eek! His mother, sister, brother and nephew all flew here from South Africa and my mom flew home from Florida.

Glad he is going to be okay!

  Peter and Robby on Christmas

Countdown to Boston: 7 Weeks!

 Countdown to Boston! Can you believe that in 7 weeks time, the Boston Marathon will have come and gone? Eeek! It's going to be here before we know it. Every week up until Boston, we'll be posting some 'flashback' pics from last year's race. 

This week, we start it off with some pics from the night before the race, where everyone knew the 'big secret' except for Miss Bethany. We all got together and had a big pasta dinner at Ryan's parents' house. Enjoy the pics below, and get excited for Boston!

  

Playing with Robby

Robby giving "Mr. Ryry" a Good Luck Kiss

Hydrating. (Just for show, we're not that into Gatorade:-)

Who else is running Boston? And are you excited yet? Don't forget we live about 0.2 mi from the finish line, so if you have any questions, or would like to schedule a running tour, or would like to meet up for a Bloggy Get-together before/after Boston, let us know!! :-)

Our Goals for 2010 (a little belated)

Well we meant to do this post a while back, but we apparently never got around to it, so I guess now's as good a time as any to post our goals for 2010. So here they are:

Ryan:
1.) Work on my Core: I have a really bad back, probably due to four years of crashing into people on the rugby pitch, and it's only gotten worse now that I have a desk job and sit down for 9.5+ hours a day. I know I always feel better after a little session of core and some yoga, but somehow I never seem to find the time to work it in. This MUST change in 2010.

2.) Run at least 4 Marathons: I have definitely caught the running bug from Miss Bethany. As you all know, we first started dating, I had NO desire to EVER run. No she's got me hooked, and yes, the marathon is now my favorite distance. I'm already 1/4th of the way to this goal, after finishing the Disney Marathon with a nice PR. Next up is Boston Marathon in April, Alaska Mayor's Marathon in June, and Stone Cat Trail Marathon in November. Contemplating Bay State Marathon in October, but we will see.

3.) Start my Master's Degree: I'm already on my way to this one. I started taking night classes at Northeastern University, working on my Master's degree in Structural Engineering. It gets a little stressful at times, trying to balance working full-time, class, and running, but it'll work out.

4.) Eat more Fruits and Veggies: Luckily I have Miss Bethany to help me with this.

5.) Set new PRs in the 5k, 10k, and Half-Marathon Distances

Bethany:
1.) Run the StoneCat 50 Mile Trail Race in November
2.) Have a new marathon PR (3:25?)
3.) Break 5:20 in a Half-Ironman
4.) Floss More (not going so well)
5.) Read at least one book per month (so far on book #3)
6.) Maybe lose a couple pounds this summer

Well that's about it for now. Hope everyone's having a good week!
 

Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler

Wow, it's been a busy week. Feels like we haven't updated in a looong time! 

Well, we ran the Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler on Saturday, and it was quite an experience. It was definitely an all-day affair, but it ended up alright. We had fun, and it's always a good day when we can spend a whole day together! We had to get up real early, drive about an hour to where the ferry leaves, take about a 45 min ferry ride, and then wait about 2 hours for the 11am race to start.

Here we are waiting at the Vineyard Playhouse, chilling pre-race.

 

Unfortunately we ran separately, Miss Bethany wanted to test out her wheels, and it was good to get a first solo 20-miler in before Boston.

 

Chilling in the school gymnasium post-race, feeling good. Ryan did 2:56:50 (8:50 pace), and Miss Bethany did a sweet 2:39:53 (7:58 pace), even though she said she was feeling really sluggish and kept thinking Ryan was going to catch up :-p

 

Ryan's time was good enough for 3rd place in the 20-24 age group (not a deep group haha), while Miss Bethany took home 2nd place in the 20-24 group. Ryan also placed 11th out of 37 Clydesdales. Not the Top 10 finish he was hoping for, but still felt good about it. 

 

The boat ride home from the Vineyard. A good day.

We also had a nice little Valentine's Day, nothing too exciting. Just a nice day spent together. :-)

Heartbreak Hill (photos included!)

This past Saturday, we ran 18 miles on the Boston Marathon course. We ran essentially from the finish line, out to mile 17, and back. We carried a camera because Ryan Hall was in town, running the course for some practice, at the same time we were, and we were hoping to catch a glimpse of some greatness. We also wanted to take a picture of Heartbreak Hill to show you it's really not that scary, although the camera may be a little too kind, as the hill really looks flat :-)

 

This is Ryan heading up the first part of Heartbreak. What, in our opinion, makes Heartbreak so tough is that the road starts heading up, and then you reach a little plateau and you think you've crested the hill . . . . 

  

However, the road turns right and heads up some more. It's definitely not the steepest hill on the course, but it is most certainly the longest for sure. During the course of our run, we probably saw about 500-1000 runners out there getting some coursework in. Running in Boston, especially on the course, at this time of year is AWESOME!

  

Post-run pic. :-) "Feels-Like" Temperature was 5°F.

  

We realized we had the same socks on. We love our Wrightsocks!

  

It was even so cold out, that we had a little unwelcome visitor try to sneak in the apartment and get some warmth. We only saw him once, but did not catch him. Hopefully he is back outside with his family, FOR GOOD!

 

Super Bowl Sunday! Who Dat Say Dey Gon' Beat Dem Saints?! Check out the old-school hat. (Ryan's dad has been a Saints fan for many, many years.)

This weekend we are celebrating Valentine's Day together by running the Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler on Saturday! It should be fun, and probably a little chilly!

Also, we will leave the Haiti comment drive open until Friday, when we will take the final tally and write the check! Thanks again to everyone who participated!!!

Exciting News!!!!!

We have three exciting things to share with all of you!
Exciting thing #1, we are up to $20 for our Haiti fundraiser ($40 after its matched), come on people, keep commenting and following us so we can donate more! Thanks to everyone who commented or became a new follower!
Exciting thing #2, last Saturday our track club, The Greater New Bedford Track Club, had its annual awards banquet and Miss Bethany was voted 2009 Female Runner of the Year.

2009 Female and Male Runners of the Year! 

Exciting thing #3, We will be getting a new niece or nephew in August! Wahoo! Miss Bethany's sister is pregnant with baby #2. We can't wait! 

Robby with "Ah-Boo" and "Mr. Ryry."

Here's Mr. Ryry teaching Robby to give the baby a bottle. Robby is 1 year and 8 months. Love this pic! 

Thanks again to everyone who commented or became a new follower.