Pro Football Hall of Fame Marathon

For this week's "Feature Runner Friday", we are happy to introduce to you local runner Dustin Wilson. Dustin will be making his half-marathon debut this spring at our 7th annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Marathon Series. A former collegiate football player, Wilson shared how he has always been an athlete but never a runner and looks forward to completing his first half-marathon with us this April. "I have always been an athlete but never a runner," Wilson said. "I have also been a big guy my entire life. After playing college football, I got larger. I decided in 2018 that enough was enough. Over a course of 10 months, I lost 152lbs..." "What helped with the weight loss was getting into running," Wilson said. " After running the HOF 5k last year, I decided I was going to run the HOF half marathon in 2020. Here I am!" Wilson looks to hit some 5k and 10ks along his training plan for his first half marathon. Keep working h...

Happy Tuesday, HOF marathon followers! It's another week again which means we are that much closer to marathon race weekend!  We have almost made it through January and now will be challenged by February’s brisk. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out last week’s post regarding “beating the snow.” Since we are approaching February, which usually is the snowiest month for Ohio, that article will be helpful. Moving forward, let us talk training for this week. There have been a lot of questions from you regarding ways to improve times and optimize training. The focus is actually simple-- Long Runs! The biggest energy system you will be using during your half/ full marathon will be your aerobic system… so focus on those long run sessions and volume. Your long run days are the most crucial training days during marathon training. For February, if you haven’t already, focus on progressing those long run days! I usually like to utilize Sundays for my long run...

For today’s “Feature Runner Friday”, we are featuring stand out Malone University graduate George McCartney. McCartney is currently training for his first competitive half-marathon. McCartney is part of our Pro Football Hall of Fame Marathon Series Elite Program and we are excited that he will be making his first half marathon debut with us this April. “This Is going to be the first half marathon I race and I hope to progress up to the full,” McCartney said. “I consider myself purely aerobic so I know the longer the distance, the more I will excel.” A former Track and Field All-American in the 10,000 meters just last spring, McCartney decided last summer to continue his running career as a post-collegiate runner. Successfully racing a personal best in the 8,000 meters on grass this past fall, McCartney describes his early post-collegiate running journey to be a blessing.  “The first thing I think of honesty is just how blessed I am to have this opportunity,” ...

Happy Training Tuesday HOF Marathon followers! Ohio is finally looking like winter! Coach Tina is the Elite Program Coordinator for the HOF Marathon  With the temperatures dropping below 20 degrees and snow covering the roads there is no doubt that keeping good traction on the ground while running will be a challenge and at times incredibly frustrating.  I just experienced it this past weekend on my long run. You are eager to go out and crush a long run and then you find yourself almost the entire run catching your balance and slowing down to a pace you really do not want to be running. I am here to tell you don’t fret! Yes, these conditions can seem terrible but remember that the weather is out of our control and ultimately there are ways of still getting the work in! There are ways and solutions  to help make your snowy, freezing runs safer and helpful. Understand too that some days this winter you might have to reevaluate your training for t...

Happy Friday HOF Marathon followers! This Friday we want to feature one of our local, repeating HOF marathon runners!  Get to know North Canton’s Katie Ramsey! A later start to the running world, Katie first initially became interested in running when she and her mother decided to run a 5k race for fun.  “I started running about three years ago,” Ramsey said. “I never ran in high school. I actually played volleyball and softball and I hated running. So around three years ago I was driving around Canfield and passed the apple orchard. There was a sign that said “Come join us for a 5k”. So I was like hmm this sounds kind of fun. So mom and I signed up. We didn’t train or anything, just kind of decided to show up and run... "It took us 45 minutes for our first one because we walked a lot with it being in the apple orchard and then we took off from there, Ramsey said. "We wanted to get better and found that the running community was a lot of fun .” After catchi...

Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s a new year, which means it's time to make some new running goals for the 2020 road racing season! Coach Tina is the Elite Coordinator for the HOF Marathon Speaking of the 2020 racing season, have you marked your calendars yet for our 7th annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Marathon Series for this April? If you haven’t yet, check out our website www.hofmarathon.com to see what race events we have going on this year! We offer races from the walk/race 5k all the way up to the full marathon! Consider running our 5 leg marathon relay with some friends or even a work group! Use code TUESDAYTRAINING to receive 10 dollars off your registration fee if you haven’t signed up yet. We are officially 16 weeks out from our race weekend and would love to offer any guidance/ tips on training for those of you brave enough to train in Ohio’s winter weather.  Training in the winter can always seem like a drag; especially when you have un...