In this issue: - Second Wind Running Club

SWRC members traveled near
and far during late summer
and fall to run races. Here are
stories of three runners’ recent
experiences: Sean Kerrigan at
the Madison Mini Marathon on
Aug. 21st, Letitia Moffitt at the
Montreal Half Marathon on Sept.
5th, and Lisa Julian at the Long
Beach Marathon on Oct. 17th.
How did you hear about this
race and why did you decide to
run it?
Julian: I’ve wanted to run a
marathon for years now. I was
particularly interested in racing
in southern California since I am
originally from the SoCal area. I
found the Long Beach Marathon,
which was advertised to be a flat
and scenic course (part of it right
next to the beach!). There was
plenty of space left to register, so
I just made the commitment.
Kerrigan: I heard about the 2010
Madison Mini Marathon simply
by looking at the Half Marathon
Calendar and choosing a
race that was relatively close
by. Also, having never visited
Madison before, I thought it
seemed like a great opportunity
to explore somewhere new while
getting my second half marathon
under my belt. I think perhaps I
was a little too impatient to wait
for a half marathon in the fall.
Moffitt: Last year I did four international
races (two in Spain, one
14 In Passing ● November/December 2010 ● secondwindrunningclub.org
IN PASSING
Races in many places
By Lisa Julian, Sean Kerrigan, and Letitia Moffitt
in Hungary and one in Latvia)
and enjoyed them immensely.
This year, unfortunately, the
injury I sustained training for the
Illinois Marathon kept me out of
racing action for a long time. At
some point in late summer it occurred
to me that I hadn’t left the
country all year. How could that
be? No stamps on my passport?
I frantically searched Runner’s
World until I found a listing for
the Montreal Half Marathon.
I’d never been to Montreal but
heard great things about it, and I
figured it would be a good way to
get away for Labor Day weekend,
run my first race since the
marathon, and practice my exquisitely
bad French without having
to travel all the way to France.
How did you train for the race?
What were your goals for both
training and the race itself?
Julian: Fortunately, I was already
an accomplished half-marathon
runner (ha!) and figured it was
a good starting point for the
full marathon training. My
actual marathon training totaled
4 months. I slowly increased
my weekly mileage from ~20
miles/week to ~35 miles/week
and slowly increased my weekly
long run, which topped out at a
20-miler. My goals for the training
were to not injure myself
(since I had recently suffered
from a stress fracture) and my
primary goal for the race was
to finish in under 4 hours—al-
though, because this was my first
marathon, I really just wanted to
finish.
Kerrigan: My training consisted
of 3-4 runs per week; however, I
lacked distance training as each
of those runs was only 4-8 miles
with one “long” 12-miler two
weeks prior to the race. My goal
was to improve on my first half
marathon time (1:50:30) from the
Illinois Marathon on May 1st,
although with my training considerably
lighter than back then,
I knew Madison was going to be
difficult.
Moffitt: I’d been training for the
Chicago Marathon all summer,
so I didn’t do anything special
beyond that to prepare for the
Half. Ever since that disastrous
first marathon of mine, my
number one goal for training is to
avoid injury. As for the race itself,
I honestly had no idea at all
how I would do. Of course you
always want a PR, but I certainly
wasn’t counting on it.
How did it go?
Julian: The race could not have
gone better! The weather was
perfect, 60 and cloudy. I finished
in 3 hours 54 minutes and never
had to stop and walk—I never
hit “the wall” that everyone
talks about. I was fortunate to
have friends and family out on
the course and at the finish line,
Continued on page 17