Marathon Tips?

[sweetcell]

Hey runners, any tips on good heart rate monitors?  I bought a shitty one that turned out to be really shitty, and was smashed in a rage during a run.

I don't need one with the GPS or anything...and I'd like one that I can use during other workouts, etc.  Ideally it will auto-take my heartrate without me doing anything, but that's not the end of the world if not.  Any tips?

the missus has a garmin watch with the optional chest-band heart monitor, but she doesn't use it.  i tried it once and didn't quite get the point.  then again i'm not a serious runner and i'm not training for anything. 

nkotb, what do you use heart info for?  do you vary your pace based on heart rate?  do you analyze afterwards and tweak future runs?  is it just for curiosity's sake?

[Relaxer]

Well I believe nkotb is 74 years old, so heart monitoring is a keen interest of his.

[nkotb]

DING DING DING!

Nah, mostly for calorie burns, tracking conditioning, etc.  My ideal combo is one that keeps time and monitors heart rate..

Well I believe nkotb is 74 years old, so heart monitoring is a keen interest of his.

[K8teebug]

Anyone have any spring races planned?  Am running the Shamrock 1/2, Pittsburgh 1/2, and Nike Women's 1/2 (with team in training).  Will hopefully get into Marine Corps Marathon this year.

Training starts Saturday!  Which is good because it's time to start running for real again.

[grateful]

Ran Rehoboth over the weekend with a 16-minute negative split   Gonna take some time off from racing until the Rock-n-Roll Half in March.

[vansmack]

Anyone have any spring races planned? 

Kaiser Half through Golden Gate Park on Super Bowl Sunday and one other one before the Napa to Sonoma Half in July.

[James Ford]

It sucks that they made the MCM registration this year on a day smack dab in the middle of what is Spring Break week for alot of people/families. I'm going to have to put off going to the beach until later in the day so I can get my ass to an internet cafe where hopefully I'll be able to register and nobody will steal my credit card info.

[Relaxer]

You should probably post your credit card info here so that we can all be on the lookout for it and let you know if we see it being used for nefarious purposes.

[K8teebug]

It sucks that they made the MCM registration this year on a day smack dab in the middle of what is Spring Break week for alot of people/families. I'm going to have to put off going to the beach until later in the day so I can get my ass to an internet cafe where hopefully I'll be able to register and nobody will steal my credit card info.

Good.  Maybe it will be easier for some of us to register.  I'm worried that it's going to be a fiasco like chicago.

anyone running shamrock this weekend?  I will be there!

[vansmack]

I'm worried that it's going to be a fiasco like chicago.

I was just asked to run Chicago - tell me more......

[grateful]

anyone running shamrock this weekend?  I will be there!

I'm running the RNR half...

[James Ford]

My wife did her personal record at Chicago. Very flat, fast course. Didn't seem to sell our quickly, but that was a number of years ago.

I'm worried that it's going to be a fiasco like chicago.

I was just asked to run Chicago - tell me more......

[James Ford]

It took 2 hours, 47 minutes to sell out last year. How does that equate to being difficult to register for?

It sucks that they made the MCM registration this year on a day smack dab in the middle of what is Spring Break week for alot of people/families. I'm going to have to put off going to the beach until later in the day so I can get my ass to an internet cafe where hopefully I'll be able to register and nobody will steal my credit card info.

Good.  Maybe it will be easier for some of us to register.  I'm worried that it's going to be a fiasco like chicago.

anyone running shamrock this weekend?  I will be there!

[K8teebug]

I'm worried that it's going to be a fiasco like chicago.

I was just asked to run Chicago - tell me more......

So many people tried to register for it that the site kept crashing.  After 30,000 people registered (and it was crazy trying to figure out if you were...people were charged multiple times, etc.)  They ended up going lottery for the last 10,000 spots.  My friend tried for 4 hours to register.

I'm just a little worried that everyone knows MCM sold out so fast last year and the same thing is going to happen next week...

[sweetcell]

looks like i've got a bib for the cherry blossom 10 miler.  i believe it will be the longest distance i have ever run, pretty sure that 9 is my current long.