Only 31 days until Chicago!

I can't believe I'm only 32 days away from running the Chicago marathon. I have been busy with my training and increasing my distance on my long Sunday runs. This past Sunday Catherine, Lish and I ran all the way from Lambeth to Port Stanley for a total of 32 km. Lish and I really wanted to focus on slowing down our pace as we always seem to run a little too fast on our Sunday runs which are meant to be long and slow. The weather was amazing! It seemed cold when I woke up and I wasn't sure what to wear. We've had such hot humid weather here this summer so the cool morning totally threw me off on what to wear. I decided on carpi's and a t-shirt which was perfect. The run was organized through Runners Choice which is a running organization in London. I was so impressed by the run as they had amazing water stops along the route. There was fruit, water, goodies and such wonderful volunteers cheering us on. The time seemed to fly by and before you knew it we had reached the beach. Catherine had finished before us on this run so it was so wonderful to have her cheering us on at the finish line. About 200 runners participated in the run so it was so much fun to have all the support along the way.

Lish, myself & Catherine at the finish line :)

Since it was a long weekend I had an extra day off work. I wanted to spend some time with my family but do something active and fun. I miss the hikes at FR so I told Jamie (my husband) that I wanted to go on a hike. We live really close to a conservation area that has some trails that we can walk to from our house. We ventured out just after noon from our house with Tonka our fur baby and spent the next 2 hours hiking through the trails at Dalewood Conservation area. It really doesn't compair at all to what I hiked at FR but it was nice to be spending time with my boys and doing something active. Our hike ended up being 8km long and when we got home both the dog & Jamie were wiped out. I look forward to doing that hike again once the leaves start turning because it will be just beautiful.

Tonka & I after our hike

My husband Jamie and my fur baby Tonka

On Tuesday night at my running group one of our group leaders did a presentation on his experiences from some of the marathons he has run in the past. He has run Chicago a few times and he had some pictures to share with the group. I know there is 40,000 people who will be participating in this race but when I saw those pictures he shared with us it was a little overwhelming and exciting at the same time. I have 4 weeks of training left before the big event.

Stay tuned for more updates as my training continues for Chicago 2010!