Just because the Marathon is over doesn't mean that you can't stop giving to Team in Training!
Here's my website:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntil/tntilMHutchi

Also if you think you may want to try training for a marathon, triathlon, or century bike ride check out Team in Training's program:

www.teamintraining.org

Thanks everyone for their support!

26.2 I did it!

I kicked asphalt, and here are the photo's to prove it! I ran most of the race with my TNT friends. I did nearly the enitre race with the awesome Sara Cears (pronounced Cheers)! She's a real power house of good energy and can do attitude! Matt, Andrew, & my in-laws had one heck of a day watching the marathon and seeing all sorts of exotic Chicago spots!

I'm not in this photo. I may be a yellow dot in the far off distance-- I crossed the start line 22 minutes after the offical start. It seems as if my other 40,000 closest pals were in a hurry.


Jerry, Andrew, & Kathy enjoying brunch at Orange while I'm slechlping my way through the North side (and the first ten miles).

This is a little before the half way point. There were some really cool folks playing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" so all the runners I was with were yelling 'Ahh Half Way There.' AWESOME!

This is me at about the 20 / 23 mile marker visiting with veiwers Matt & Kathy. I like this photo because it has the Sears Tower in the background, and the hard working observers with myself.

This was me in the 'bite me' zone. I lost all my runing pals and my right foot was going "What the HELL are you doing to me?!?!" I didn't have the ability to stop and start to say hi, so I waved at the camara and kept going. Note all of the other walkers, this was about the 20 mile mark.

Shortly after the picture above I found Sara in the crowd, and we finished strong together! In fact we divereted from out walk 2 minutes run 3 plan at the end and ran the last mile (which is on an incline) together! She rocks!

OH MY WORD!

Ahhhh!!! The Marathon is only 1 and a half days away!!!

• 6 months of training. check
• gear laid out check
• driven and visualized my self running the course. Check & Check
• Figured out where to park down town CHECK
• 
  

TO DO'S

• carbo load- - fun & easy
• pick up registration pack - no problem
  
• get gear for running in the SNOW! - WTF!!!!
  
• practice running in the snow - IT AIN'T HAPPENIN'

My friend's who forcast weather arent' being very nice!

Thanks for everyone's call and support as I did the job interveiw circut this week. I had two in person interviews, and two phone interveiws. All seem somewhat promiseing, but at this point I really don't know if anything will turn up. It's a matter of playing the waiting game at this point. Fingers & Fins still crossed.

If I'm able to type on Monday I'll give a play by play.

Interviews!

Two job interviews this week and the marathon to boot!

Send happy thoughts my way as I interview on Monday morning and Thursday afternoon. Monday I'll be interviewing at the Shedd Aquarium for a grant writing postion, Thursday a similar postion for a domestic violence center.

I'm SUPER interested in writing grants for fish. So fingers (and fins) crossed everyone! Thus far I'm not too worried about the marathon, bigger fish to fry (pardon the pun) for the moment!

Fall Fun & Alter Boyz!

I had a lovely weekend picking apples with Andrew & the lovely Laura in Michigan. I have more apples I can shake a stick at (see Andrew's blog for some terrific photos!), and thus have made a little less apple butter than I can shake a stick at. Michigan has been a place I've never spent much time, but our time in Coldwater was beautiful, maybe it was the open road, fall air, old friends, apples, margaritas, or the wine tasting but I came home filled with fall goodness.

How does one follow such a lovely weekend? Well, celebrating with even more old friends. I was thrilled and greatly blessed to welcome some LaRue-ites to the big city, as a high school and church play made his debut as a lead in the touring company off Broadway hit of 'Alter Boyz.' A hilarious musical about a catholic boy band! This role was MADE for Ryan, and he steals the show! So my theater buff friends, and my non-theater buff friends you simply MUST see the show, they are in town for three weeks, or you can catch them when they come to your town-- but you simply MUST see it! www.altarholics.com

So now that all that excitement has passed, I’m left with the daunting task of finding employment. (Sigh!) I've become a pro at getting my resume out there, but for every 20 résumé’s I send out I'm getting one 'gee, thanks for sending us this resume. Don't call us we'll call you' note. This finding a job business is not for the light of heart.

20 miles!!!

This weekend was our longest run ever, 20 miles! All week I’d been preparing for pain and agony through out the hours I’d spend trekking the distance. I would break down the distance into sizeable chunks in my head, then imagine myself running it—and it worked! I made it! It was my best run to date, I totally felt like I could have squeezed another 6.6 miles in to round it into my first marathon. I’m feeling ready and excited, now all I have to do is wait another 22 days for the event!

On our 18 mile run, I surpassed a level of lazy runner, which few of my running buddies imagined. I stopped on a bench around the 15-mile mark, and I took a nap! The distance was great; I made a poor decision to run with a slight cold, and an even worse decision to tackle a distance that great after taking a Sudafed. The 18-mile run took significantly more time and effort than the 20 mile this weekend, in short - Lesson learned.

Sadly, Thursday was my last day at my summer gig, so the job hunt is hot and heavy. After some conversations with co-workers and friends I’ve been persuaded that many of my strengths would make me really good at fund raising/ development for a university or hospital, or Quality Assurance within a non-profit. In the meantime I’m hoping to temp around the city, it’s not great money but it’s an income better than slinging coffee, with better hours.

Also! I’m searching for the right soundtrack for the marathon for my Mp3 player—Suggestions?