We raised $315,000 for charity!

We raised US $ 315,000 for charity through the marathon. We had an event where we presented the monies collected for charity through the marathon to representatives of the charities.

I was honored to have the opportunity to present the check for $3800 US to the Diabetic Research Foundation of Iceland and talk about my fight against the disease. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes on January 5, 2006. I beat the disease by diet and exercise (preparing to run the marathon helped quite a bit! my doctor agrees :))

Iceland has been in the forefront of diabetic research. DeCode is a genetics company in Iceland that found the gene that causes Type 2 Diabetes, here is the link to the press release.

Official Marathon Result

I was eager to see my name in the official published list of marathon finishers the day after the marathon only to find "Hlaupari 2TM9EPY" next to my time. The marathon organizers did not get my name in the list :( I had to wait until last Thursday (8/24) to get my name in the list.

I am happy to note that they got my name in the List finally, I am number 242 in the list

Running the Oslo Marathon in 4 weeks!

Call me crazy but I have decided to run the Oslo Marathon on Ocotber 1, 2006. It all started with my Boss deciding that Glitnir will sponsor the Oslo Marathon. The deal is to be signed on Monday (8.27.2006), Glitnir will be the official sponsor of the Oslo Marathon and the team from Glitnir which ran the Reykjavik Marathon has unanimously voted to run the Oslo Marathon as well.

As part of the prepartion, my strategy is to consider the Reykjavik Marathon as my last long run before the Oslo Marathon. I will follow the plan as I would have if I was running a marathon in 4 weeks.

Glitnir Reykjavik Marathon - 4:12:30!

Ran the Glitnir Reykjavik Marathon 2006 in 4 hours 12 minutes and 30 seconds! Extremely proud of the personal achievement! I was the 241st to finish out of 406.

Goal 1 2006 - Done!

I could not have done it without the support of my wife, family... and of course my buddy Vilhelm Thorsteinsson, who was my sounding board, coach and inspiration! He finished the race in 3:21:22.

London Marathon 2007, here I come...

Marathon Day

It is 5:48 am on Marathon day. I am feeling very excited and eager to start the race... It has been a crazy 6 months. I would have never believed myself that I was going to run a marathon in Iceland.

I was at my mother-in-laws place last night and she had cooked Noodles, it was a good source of Carbohydrates, in addition to that I have been Carbo-loading for about a week now. I feel good. I will be eating a bowl of Granola with AB Sour Milk (it is icelandic version of Yoghurt, but I am told that it is made differently), a cup of coffee and may be a slice of bread by 6 am.

I have decided that if this marathon goes well I will be running the London Marathon and a 55 km race in Iceland next summer. My goals are to improve my speed and endurance 20% to 30% depending on how I do today.

This Marathon is sponsored by my bank and since I belong to the CEO's office I have been getting a lot of Publicity. We had our photo shoot yesterday with all the marathon runners from Glitnir, it was a lot of fun and it is very impressive that we have 500 people from the bank running various lengths in this marathon. Here are some statistics about this marathon from my bank's perspective
1. 500 Glitnir employees have signed up to run the marathon
2. Glitir has raised approximately 21 million Icelandic Krona = 303,431.34 USD for various charity organizations
3. People from 34 different countries have registed to run the marathon
4. Approximately 8000 people will be starting the marathon, it is the biggest in the history of Reykjavik Marathon

I feel very proud to be part of a group of people from my bank who are making a difference in the community. I think a lot has got to do with our leader and CEO, Bjarni Armannsson... He is running the whole marathon and that has had a very positive impact on the us.

2 days before the marathon

Well the big day is getting pretty close. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been using Garmin to monitor my heart rate and my running statistics, since May 18, 2006 I have
1. Ran a total of 452 kilometers
2. Ran a total time of 47 hrs 50 minutes 01 seconds
3. Burned 59538 calories!
4. I weigh 80.5 kilograms

10 days to the Marathon

Well, it has been a while since my last post. I have been sticking to my running schedule and have been travelling a bit as well. I ran my longest distance 30km in New York City on the West Side, it was quite enjoyable on a early Sunday morning. I just love NYC, and I forgot to buy I love NYC t-shirt again.
My wife and I went on a flight with the least number of carry on as our daughter stayed with her grandparents in Reykjavik. It was a strange feeling, both of us kept calling to check on her... they warned me that life changes once you have a baby :)
Well, the big day is approaching fast. I have been tapering down on my running schedule but I have this weird feeling that I have not prepared enough. Maybe I have´nt I don´t know. I ran this morning and started hurting a bit on my the back of my leg so I stopped... it could be that I did too much (I played 18 holes the evening before!). I have been talking a lot about running to my colleagues during lunch and I probably got the best compliant for a long time, that the ones I speak to get motivated about running after talking to me. Felt good that I am able to positively impact someone else. I guess the reason that I talk as much is because I have been reading quite a bit on Marathon preparation and the science behind it (my pathetic way to reinforce my belief system that I can do this :)).
I would categorize the talk into 3 topics
1. Training strategy and schedule
2. Science behind food and stamina
3. My time recordings from my running schedule

I guess the most controversial is the my running strategy which I got from Jeff Galloway, where he advices a walk-run schedule. I run 4 minutes and walk 40 sec to 1 minute, I ran 30km that way and did it in 3 hours and 5 minutes! If I keep the same pace I will be able to finish the marathon in atleast 5 hours... or should I say that is what I am hoping ;)