Previews

I thought I was done with postings until at least October 23rd, maybe even longer but I just had to put in a last little note.
First of, the "MERCHANDISE" as founding father Stefan calls it, arrived today! I only wanted the best models to show them for us. It took a while before I could find somebody adequate who would show the shirts off to their best advantage,(not that they need a lot, they are quite perfect) but after a long search in Ford models database, this is who I found:


I want to thank David for designing our logo and for doing all the legwork for the shirts. He took his duties very seriously. He ordered a proto type and even put the shirt in the laundry to make sure that it would survive washing before he gave me the final go ahead to order the shirts.

The other preview that my title refers to is the preview of the weather, better known as the forecast. Starting yesterday morning, I have been looking at the forecast for the big day. If I didn't like the news that one source gave me, I just went and looked for another forecast which I liked better. I am not sure it ever got better. Temperatures typically ranged from 34 to 45 but I did get some sources that would go all the way to 50. Some predicted 30% chance of showers, others said there would be a 40% of precipitation, some even put some snow in the mix and I even found one long range forecast that said there would be gusts of wind.
Interestingly enough, I did not seem to be the only lunatic sitting in front of the computer and checking the forecast but until now, I at least didn't bother other people with my findings. David gave me an update first, he claims he is happy with cool (can I change that to cold?) and showers. To quote him : "Bring it on!!!" I guess the man is excited. Then I got an update from him about 6 p.m. 2 minutes later Mike chimed in with his research. Even Clem could not resist to start checking out the forecast in Chicago. And this morning, Gil called in, with the emphasis on CALLED. The other guys used more modern technology but Gil wanted to make sure that I heard live what he had found out about the weather.
It does make me chuckle that we are all so gung ho about every aspect of this marathon. I think those of us who have run the New York marathon under pretty warm and humid conditions for the last two years are happy with some cooler temperatures. I personally could do without the rain but I guess that David has a point, :"BRING IT ON!!!" Hey, there is nothing we can do about it anyway. We are ready to run this race whatever the weather. Which brings me to something that a Belgian friend of mine always says : "the nice weather, you have to make yourself". Or to quote myself : "You get the weather you deserve." Whatever that means. Food for thought.
Rest up and see you all soon.
P.S. You can take Gil out of the monkey but you cannot take the monkey out of Gil (or vice versa)

A message from "The Queen"...

OK everybody, by this time next week, we will be at the Schaillees celebrating our accomplishments in the Chicago marathon and we will be enjoying the "Catch Me If You Can" award ceremony. So this will be my last posting before we all descend on the windy city next Friday.
After having talked about runner's butt and runner's high, I could have named this posting "runner's head". Let me explain. Last week was my last long run. Some people think it is better to do the last long run (18 to 20 miles) three weeks before the marathon. I have always wanted to do it 2 weeks before and have had many arguments about it, especially with Stefan and Gil, but, through the years the supercoach has supported me in doing it two weeks before and it is fair to say that, looking at my NYC marathon results over the years, it has been a WINNING strategy, wouldn't you say? Gil?, Stefan? Mark? (who else are these doubting Thomasses)
So I set out to do my last 20 miles and part of that was an 18 mile race that Stefan and I had decided to run together at a slightly under 9 minute pace. I started jogging to the start but I had miscalculated the distance and I had to run that first "warm up mile" at a pretty good clip. So off we went and it was obvious from mile 3 that Stefan had a hard time staying with me (I just ran too slowly for him), I encouraged him to leave and run at his own (faster) pace but he was determined to find out what my secret for running long distances was. By mile 7, it had become obvious to him that there was no secret and he sprinted away in disgust. In the meantime, I plodded ahead, more or less at the same pace (between 8:50 en 9 minute miles) until mile 10 where I died. The next mile took me just under 10 minutes and than there was a big fight between the two parts of my split personality. My brain told me to continue because it was better to finish the 20 miles but my body said :"who are you kidding." So, for the second time in a 15 year running carreer, I aborted a long run and I went home, with probably my pride hurting more than anything else.
The whole afternoon, I got calls and e-mails from Erik, Stefan, David and Grant letting me know that they had finished their last 18 or 20 miles and how well it had gone and how excited they felt. Then I called Clem who cheerily told me he had run 22 miles that day. (after running a marathon in 3:53 the week before as a pace leader). Although he tried to cheer me up and gave me some advice regarding my training schedule for the past week, by Sunday afternoon I had a serious case of RUNNER'S HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stefan's results for the race which I saw later that evening made it worse. After running around 8:50 with me for 7 miles, he finished the 18 miler in 8:32 min/miles. You all can do the math but I have to admit that I gasped.
All this, plus no sign of life from Philippe who is running on his home turf and who is obviously training very seriously but under the radarscreen, has made me face reality.... I have succumbed and gone on line... to find the appropriate "Catch me if you can" trophy but be careful, the queen is not dead, by any means.
Speaking of math, and odds, and gambling. I have done some research,I have looked at people's results over the years and I have decided that I am going to make a prediction of finishing order. I am going to seal it, bring it with me to Chicago and opening it will be part of the award ceremony. Wendy had the idea that everybody, even not runners, should be invited to make their own sealed predictions. I will provide you with the names of all the runners one more time, I think all the SLG-ers (even those not eligible for the CMIYC tropy) can make their predictions. You can do research on line, you can go to past performances, you can do whatever you want. The one thing you cannot do is have hurt feelings if you don't see your name in the first three finisher. So how about it. Here are the SLG'ers running next Sunday, in alphabetical order :
Clem Mertens
David Garcia
Dora Illy (best last name and best legs of SLG)
Erik Sevenants
Gil Perrone
Grant Beggs
Larry Eberhard
Lief Sannen
Mike Smyth ((watch your research, there is a +5 hour marathoner with the same name)
Patrick Bijnens
Philippe Schaillee
Stefan Ewald
Steven Goldade
So if you feel inspired, make you predictions. Maybe there should be a trophy for the person who comes the closest to the truth with his her predictions.
So, some last minute things before we get to Chicago. Technical T-shirts with the logo were ordered. David had a prototype made last week and after some last minute changes, "mass production" has started.
Last Friday, October 13th, Stefan became an American citizen. Congratulations to Stefan. He is the first SLG'er to become an American citizen since the club was founded.
Enjoy a week of guilt free not running, get lots of rest, don't drink too much, eat your spaghetti, DON'T FORGET YOUR SLG HATS and we will see each other on Friday (for most of us).
Details about hotel reservations that were made through me will follow in separate e-mails.

A message from the SLG founding fathers

Founding father Mark and I held an executive emergency board meeting at this year' Greta's Gallop brunch. We believe that the rules and regulations for this years SLG "Catch-me-if-you-can trophy" have not been communicated sufficiently. Consequently registration for the Chicago Marathon this year exceeded expectations and broke all records. 40.000 runners have signed up!!! Many of these entrants signed up silently hoping that they have a shot at the already legendary "Catch-me-if-you-can-trophy" which will be awarded for the first time ever. Unfortunately 39.989 entrants won't be eligible at all to participate in this highly competitive race because they don't meet all of the required entry criteria for this premier event.

These qualification criteria are strictly enforced and are follows:

1.) Participants need to be SLG members. (No worries Mike... Memberships to other clubs don't have to be renounced..you can have other clubs next to SLG)
2.) Partcipation is based upon executive decision by the coach based on past race performances (Hey...at the end of the day she is still the reigning champion. This position comes with some priviledges).

Other regulations associated with the CMIYC trophy:

3.) In the unlikely event that more then one runner leave the coach in the dust the trophy will be awarded to the overall fastest runner.
4.) The winner has to give a victory speech at the post Marathon festivities.
5.) The winner is responsible for proper storage and maintenance of the trophy throughout the year.
6.) The winner will be responsible for defending, handing over, or providing of the trophy at the next offcial SLG CMIYC event (Most likely the NYC Marathon 2007)
7.) The winner will be entitled to brag as much as he/she wants about the achievement until the next official SLG CMIYC event. (Lief, you better make sure you keep Gil in check....)

This years qualified SLG members are:

Lief....the coach and dominating queen of SLG. Consistently and easily battling off the pack for the last 2 years after reigning without any serious competition for many many years. The canny coach gave out this years motto (after which the trophy is named) and caused unparalleled -and often stealth- training activities across the SLG camp (see below). Fueled by rumors that she was suffering a "runners butt", SLG runners secretly felt that THIS might be the year and logged a few extra miles. Conspiracy theorist now begin to challenge the whole "runners butt" diagnosis after Lief -seemingly without any effort- was logging 8:30 - 8:40s in last weeks long run.

Gil ... the eternal second in his age category and representing the "premier" in the original "International Premier Running Club" is launching a new attack to push the queen from her throne. Late entrant (thanks to the persuasive skills of the coach) to the Marathon Gil quickly caught up with training and is now back to old forms. As usual his seemingly never ending chest of stories helped us through the long runs again this year. Based on the coach advise he changed his diet of 3 Gallon Gatorade and 2 pounds of Motrin a day. He runs very easily and is one of the top contenders for the trophy... unless he again goes out with a sub8/mile pace. He even decided to skip next weeks long run for a fishing trip. This guy is in shape.

Mike... the SLGer in the closet. Converted NY-Flyer (yes Flyers you did read correctly in case you accidentally landed on this Blog) showed very consistent training times. The originally postulated goal time of 3:30 was dismissed by the queen as rather unlikely and hence he was considered eligible for the CMIYC-trophy. Well, coach ... not sure if this was a wise call.... This year show-down with Gil shows how strong this guy really is. Your call!!!

Erik....the NJ rocket. The member with the most intimidating training stories!!! Reportedly logging sub8 miles for 20 mile long runs...... weekend after weekend... which was cause for some serious analysis during our Central Park long runs. How is this possible?? He got hooked up with some elite runners in NJ and was "dragged" along. Having had the privilege to train on Erik's home turf one weekend I can attest that the Middletown course is HILLY... VERY HILLY indeed. If the race tactic is right he will be all the way in the front. Ohh yeah before I forget the NJ rocket placed 3rd in a 8 mile run in NJ this year with an impressive 1:00:22 in his age category. Trying to distract everyone from this outstanding performance he attributed the 3rd place to the fact that there were many older participants ... nice try.

Philippe .... the "undercover athlete". Little is known about training methods and current condition of this talented athlete. Information only sparsely made it to the SLG headquarters. No official race times give testament as to what this runner has on his mind for this year's marathon. The last I heard was something about a 24mile (!!!!) long run without any water supply somewhere in Belgium. Other then that he hooked up with a Chicago running club and will for sure leverage the home-turf advantage mercilessly. Definitely someone that the queen has to watch out for. Hopefully he will fully disclose his training regime at the Marathon Party. I believe that Belgium beer plays a big role in his preparation.

David....founder of the Minnesota chapter (by the way... this chapter grew by whopping 100% since last year. Well done!!). I had David on my short-list for the crown already last year. This athlete is probably the most elegant SLG runner. If the tactics is right this year everything is possible.

Grant....co-founder of the Minnesota chapter. Similar to Philippe no information is available. From last year I remember Grant as strong runner in the Queens 1/2 Marathon.

Larry and Steve.... The Minnesota Terrorists. Well, go re-read the last post and you realize that these guys are not here to mess around. Ran a Marathon last weekend as preparation for Chicago!!! Give me a break! I am glad I am not in Lief's running sneakers with this crowd breathing down my neck.

Dora...the underdog. While the competitive branch of SLG may throw all tactics over board in an all-out battle for the CMIYC trophy watch who maybe laughing last. At the end of the day it is still 26.2miles. Everything is possible I'd say.

Stefan... SLG founding father without wingman. The coach considers me to be the wildcard. Not having been able to log as many miles in training this year I hope that the flat course will compensate for the lack of training. More importantly though I am concerned that I am not able to run with my wingman Mark who is unfortunately not going to start in Chicago. Having a shot at the trophy might release some adrenalin though so don't be surprised Lief when you turn around at mile 25 and I sneaked up on you. You may have to watch me finishing strong.


Clem, Patrick... sorry guys your are not elgible this year unless you run backwards and blindfolded with a 40 pounds weight belt around your hip as handicap. Although I have to warn you.... If I was you I would watch out for the runners in the next tier because I think we are in for some surprises this year.

I hope this clarifies the confusion that was out there. Good luck to everyone. Looking forward to Marathon weekend. Happy tapering and see you soon!

Let's go and catch the queen!!!

does anybody need some last minute motivation?

Just a real quick post, for some motivation/intimidation. All of a sudden, the Chicago marathon is less then 3 weeks away and time seems to be flying. 3 SLG-ers ran a marathon this pat weekend. The Minnesota terrorists, Larry Eberhard and Steve Goldade (if I cannot run the Chicago marathon, it will be because I am being detained at Guantanamo Bay because the Bush administration is reading my e-mails and I have used the word terrorists. Oh well, it is a better excuse then runners butt, NO?) ran the "MOST BEAUTIFUL SUBURBAN MARATHON", aka the Twin City marathon this past Sunday and the supercoach, Clem, was a pace coach (for which he earned the formidable sum of 25 euros) in a marathon held near the Belgian sea shore (from De Panne to Oostende). He was supposed to bring in a group of runners under 4 hours and he told me that it was very hard to keep the group in check. They consistently ran 10 seconds per kilometer (which would be about 16 seconds per mile) faster then they needed to reach their goal. Out of 30 male and 4 female runners, 9 of them finished in 3:52:55 and about 10 other runners who had dropped back a bit finished in their goal time of 3:59.
Larry and Steve ran a 4+ marathon but it seems to me that they were doing their last long training run to get ready for Chicago.
I think in the meantime, everybody has gotten an e-mail about the merchandising and signing up for the official SLG t-shirt and everybody must have gotten an invitation for the post-marathon party at Petra and Philippe. I think it is fair to say that the excitement for this race is really starting to kick in and in all fairness, I am starting to feel the consequences of my own running motto for this year : "Catch me if you can!" I can feel the hot breath of MANY competitors in my neck. Keep your eyes peeled for a posting by a founding father about the intrigues surrounding the "catch me if you can" motto!!!