Giveaway on Another Running Blog

If you haven't already, check out Chris McPeake's blog, called Suck it Up - Rantings of a Runner on the Edge. It's always a good & entertaining read. He's another guy in his 40's (there are a lot of us, aren't there?) and he puts in a LOT of miles. He's preparing to run his first 100-miler on May 29th. He's currently hosting a pretty cool giveaway, too.

There's Still Time...

...to guess my marathon time this Saturday! Closest guess gets a free DVD copy of Running the Sahara. I saw a screening of this in March and it's an excellent documentary of a crazy group of guys who ran over 4,000 miles across the Sahara Desert.

From fastest to slowest, here are the guesses so far:

• 3:28:47 Joe Garland
• 3:33:20 HT
  
• 3:33:30 Julie
• 3:34:26 Mike
• 3:36:10 Greg
• 3:38:15 Evolving Through Running
  
• 3:39:21 Adam R.
• 3:40:30 Nancy
• 3:41:01 John
  
• 3:41:25 Ansky
• 3:42:11 Sheila
• 3:42:37 Javarunner
• 3:50:00 Adam C.
• 3:53:53 GreenGirl

Video Giveaway

Since several other running bloggers have been gracious enough to host giveaways, so I felt compelled to jump in and offer one of my own. I have an extra DVD copy of Running The Sahara:

Next Saturday, I'll be running my first marathon. To win the DVD, be the closest guess to my finishing time. As much as I love my friends outside the U.S., I'm only going to offer to ship the DVD in the States, due to postage costs.
Many of you probably have an idea of how my training has gone, but I'll briefly summarize:

• I've averaged 41 miles/week during my 16-week marathon training cycle, with a high of 52 miles.
• I've run longs runs of 18, 20, 22, 22 and 16 miles.
• I've done a reasonable amount of hill training, tempo runs and progression runs, but very minimal speedwork.
  
• I ran a 1:41 half marathon earlier this year, and have run the last half of recent long runs at 7:40-7:45, after going out at 8:45's or so (the hopeful plan for my marathon).
• If you had to pin me down on a guess, I'd say around 3:40, but it could be anywhere from a 3:30 (if everything goes perfectly) to 4:00 (or more) if the wheels fall off.
• The course is point-to-point, with some gentle rollers, but mostly flat.

That's about it! Post your guesses if you're interested. Thanks & good luck!

Giveaway

Check out Julie's Running Blog giveaway today!