Well, I'm going to try again. I registered for my 14th Houston Marathon. I can't really say my last two marathons have been disappointing, both were better than any of my Fall warm-up races, but I haven't been happy with my performance. I know the aging process is against me, and I don't have much of chance to run faster now than what I ran in my 40s. But I still haven't given up trying.
The marathon is later this time, very near the end of January, so the 18-week training period starts September 27th. I think that will help my training. It also moves the Sugar Land 30K back to Week 11, so there should be more time to recover from the 30K and peak for the marathon. I wish Houston had more races around New Year's day. The Space City 10-Miler is also going to be difficult, coming up at the end of the second week of marathon training.
I spent last week in Chicago, attending an industry meeting with nukes from across the country and Canada who also are responsible for their plant's cooling water systems. I really enjoyed Chicago; it's now on my list of interesting cities worth visiting. Running each morning along the lakefront was a wonderful break from the South Texas summer. On Monday morning, I even got to run with the temperature in the
60s! 
The run-bike trail along the lakefront was one of the busiest places I've ever run..up there with the Charles River in Boston and Houston's Memorial Park. Nobody would say hello to me though.
I ran a 5K Thursday evening at Soldier Field. The race was enormous for a 5K: over 2,400 people. I didn't run well, not even breaking 19. But the field was surprisingly very weak and I ended up placing in my age group.
I ran across
this great video of elite runners at the Boston Marathon (from
G.I.M. from
Joe). It clearly shows the differences in foot-strikes. When I started running in high school, I tended to overstride and heel strike. I'm not really sure what my form is now, but I have noticed my stride is shorter and I think I'm more of a 'neutral' runner.
