No Official Race Training Runs

Unlike the previous two years, we will not have any official training runs leading up to the 2009 Clinton Lake ultra. Second Wind Running Club is heavily involved with the new Illinois Marathon (in Champaign-Urbana, IL). As part of the club's activities, there are official training programs for both the half marathon and full marathon. They will take up almost every weekend between now and race day (the marathon is on April 11 and Clinton Lake ultra is on March 28). I doubt that our small ultra training cohort would detract from the main road marathon training, but it's best to not take any resources from the new marathon program.

So, there will be no official training runs leading up to the Clinton Lake 30-Mile Trail Run. I, and many of my friends, run the Clinton Lake trail quite often and would be happy to join anyone that wants to check it out. We would run one loop (10 miles) or more. Seriously, contact me if you have a date in mind and I'll arrange to run with you. I did it the last couple years and it was one of the highlights of my race directing duties. I love showing the trail off to new runners...and older experienced runners too! If you've never been on the trail before, let's get out there and see what you've gotten yourself into before race day arrives. If you've run the race before, come out and remind yourself what you are going to do again on March 28, 2009.

A big thank you to Brian for organizing the Clinton Lake training runs the last two years. It was fun running the various trails in the area as we built up to the 30 miles on race day.

For those very industrious types, why don't you run BOTH the new Illinois Marathon and the old Clinton Lake 30-Mile Trail Run? No special prize for that accomplishment, but you'll have the respect and admiration of all your running companions.

Speaking of training runs, if anyone was at the McNaughton Park training run on December 14, I found a pair of trail running shoes on the side of the road after the run. I was the only one still around so I took them figuring they belonged to someone in the group. Claim them if they are yours--I even cleaned the mud off. They look pretty nice...if they were my size, I'd keep 'em for myself! UPDATE: The shoes have been claimed by Jared in Decatur.