Elite Runner

No no no, not me silly. My friend Christy Beckman. Her pace is so fast she is running a marathon as I type this at Olympic qualifying pace. A little over 6 minutes per mile....for 26.2 miles! Holy smokes that is fast. I can not even fathom running ONE mile that fast. I'm pretty much sprinting if I make one mile in 8 minutes! I love talking to her after her races about the results...because she is usually the winner. Ha! She rocks.Christy and my husband, Mike at the AFC Half in 2008

I am glued to my computer "watching" her run via this SWEET real time race tracker.

It shows the map of the race, and her progress all the way through. You can zoom in to see the map even closer. This thing is serious - good thing I'm just her BFF and not a crazy stalker dude.
On the left of the screen there is a table showing her splits and predicting the other times from the current pace.

According to the marathon website "The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on October 4 is the one, and only, opportunity in 2009 to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials -Women's Marathon with a time of 2:46:00 or better."

2 hours and 46 minutes. Think of what you do, or don't do, in that time. This morning my friend is running 26.2 miles. A-MA-ZING. Especially since I'm just sittin' on my buns looking at a computer. Well, I did only get 20 minutes of sleep last night - but still.She may not finish the race. When you're trying to qualify for the Olympics you drop out if you're not on pace to finish a qualifying time. There is no point in putting your body through the stress for no reason, so they will stop if the goal is too far off. I'm praying she finishes...and I've got butterflies!!!!