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.