Erin ran in Sunday’s Knoxville Marathon, placing 3rd in her age group. She weathered the storm putting down a 4:08 time in the rain. In addition to the precipitation, Knoxville’s hills make for a challenging course. The “elevator” on Noelton Street brought the pace to a crawl for most runners, but Erin seems to flourish in the demanding feat of climbing. She has trained in the hills and occasionally in the mountains.
The Nashville Marathon is around the corner and this will be her first time to run two marathons in a year, much less back to back, just three weeks apart. I think her strong performance last weekend has mentally prepared her for the Nashville run, and I know she is physically strong. Her goal is to beat the 4:00 hour mark which has been so elusive in her past marathons.
She has handled the fire, the rebuilding process, the displacement, the move, her training and all else with her usual solid “get it done attitude”. A testament to her strength showed up in her post race activities on Sunday. After finishing the long run, she continued “getting it done” by packing boxes and moving into our recently finished house. We made trips from our townhouse of heavy loads and she carried the weight and moved the boxes. These challenges could have broken many men, but she stays positive like warrior.
As I work toward preparing myself for the awesome challenge that awaits me and my new teammate in the PMBAR race, I am finding increasingly less time for training. Eric Nelson has joined up with me for this one, and I know he is stacking up some strong rides heading into the big ride on the first Saturday in May. I don’t want to just survive the ride, I want to stomp it and have fun. I have one month left to prepare myself.
Erin at mile 24
Mile 20
Early in the race, mile 6. Erin is in the middle and to the right, and just behind, is Tim O'Conner, one of the owners of the company I work for, Food Sales East.
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