Bix 7!

I ran the Bix 7 miler today. This years race was the USATF National 7 mile championship. This was my 3rd year running the race and was looking to PR on my first years time of 40:17 and possibly break 40 min. in the race. Well I ran 40:06 and had a fantastic race. Dirk came to visit me and Erin was able to see it so it was really cool. This was my final big race until the Chicago Marathon and was a good way to go into major marathon training on a high note. Again I will keep everyone posted on any races, training, and other big news regarding the Chicago Marathon. As always donate to my cause and sponsor the NPCO.

Crazy 5k

So yesterday morning I was out doing a hilly little over 7 mile run in the rain and decided to do a 5k that I heard about in Illinois that started @ 7pm saturday night.  I wasn't to sure how I would run since I did a track workout on friday and then the hilly 7 miles in the morning but figured it was good training for the upcoming bix 7 in July.  So the race started and I was just trying to hold on to a guy that I race against a lot around here that is pretty good, but I usually can take him in a 5k and he usually beats me in the longer races.  There was a police officer ahead of us on a bike and we all thought he was the pace bike and he made a radical right hand turn down a street.  Well 10 guys in the lead pack followed him and realized it was the wrong way.  So we had to run back and get back on the course.  So me and the one guy quickly caught up and took the lead the rest of the race and were neck and neck and he was able to out kick me and beat my by about 2 seconds.  I ran 17:20 and probably would have been about 17 flat, maybe under 17 if I hadn't gone the wrong way earlier in the race. Overall it was a fun race and good training, and I ran what I wanted to.

Quad City Distance Classic Half Marathon

So this is a few days late.  I ran my first half marathon on sunday.  My goal was 1hr 18 min.  I ended up smashing that and ran 1hr 17min. 12 sec.  That is a 5:54/mile avg.  I was really excited about this since my training has been really sporadic this year.  It also has given me more motivation to work harder so I can break 40min. in the Bix 7 and run 2hrs 50min-2hrs 55min in the Chicago Marathon in October.  I finished 6th place overall and won my age group.  Overall it was an exciting day for me and one of the best races I have run my whole life.  Hope you enjoyed this entry.  As always support my cause.

May 2nd 2009,

Today I ran the N8k @ Palmer College. For the second year in a row I was second place but I did my goal of running under 28min. with a finish time of 27:53. I was able to run my last mile(ish) (8k is 4.98 miles, not exactly 5) in 5:20 which the downhill to the finish was nice. Overall I was happy with the race the only thing I noticed was I fell apart a little bit in the middle of the race when there were a few more hills which is something I need to work on a little bit. It got a cool prize for getting second place as well. I got a Sansa 2gb mp3 player (it's basically PC's ipod nano) so that was pretty sweet. Again hope everyone enjoyed the blog entry and don't forget to donate to www.firstgiving.com/paulnottoli

April 19th, 2009 Gilda's Run

Today I ran the Gilda's run 5k. It was an overcast day with a little bit of rain but was an overall nice day to run. I wasn't sure how I would run today because I was training pretty hard up to this race and have been doing more half marathon pace workouts for my half marathon on may 10th. I ran my first mile in 5:30 and just stayed with a group of 5 other guys. I hit mile 2 in 10:55 which was faster than the first mile and decided to go for it. I ended up running about the same pace a little faster to hold off the competition to place first overall in 16:55. I wanted to run faster and actually thought I would but its cool, it was more for training for the half again on may 10th. Hope everyone enjoyed the first post on the blog. Again please donate to www.firstgiving.com/paulnottoli for my marathon on behalf of the NPCO. I will also be the runner of the month for May on www.NPCO.org