I cannot believe the marathon is only one week away. The time has flown by so fast. I can remember the anticipation like a little kid on Christmas that first day of my official training. That was 15 weeks ago! It went from record heat to sustaining cool Fall weather. I'm thankful to the running gods for blessing this training period. There is just one more day that I care what the weather is like...November 20th! I've been watching the trending weather in Philly for a few weeks and it looks like it may just be perfect. 40-50 degrees! I'll have all possible options covered, just in case. I posted the link for people to get updates on me during the race and am flattered by the amount of people that are doing it. If you want to do that as well, my race number is 6503 and here is the link: http://www.xacte.com/templates/philmar/
As you well know, my goal is to run sub 3 hours for this, my third marathon. I was looking over my training log from last year and am floored by the lack of training that I did. I was able to manage a 3:09:08 and a 3:07:01 with barely ever running over 3 days a week. I have been in training mode since the beginning of December last year. I am so confident going into this race but do understand that things came happen. From weather to earthquakes, ya just never know these days. I do know one thing is for sure, I'm proud to be getting to the starting line ready. I've had to adjust my training almost the whole way. Whether it was due to these damn shin splints that just hang around enough to annoy me, or the many Ragnar's I did during training. It is so important to listen to your body and I think that's why so many people end up injured or overtraining.
A lot of people have been asking me about next year and when I tell them my plans they don't believe me. I plan for Philly to be my last marathon for a while. The excess mileage and length of one training program just wears me down. I want to focus on the half and everything down from there. I like speed and letting it loose. The marathon is such a race of discipline and patience. While I have proven to have enough of those, I still get frustrated when I want to just GO! Next year, I'm going! After I achieve my sub 3, there will be a few weeks where I will be taking some much needed time off. These shin splints are going to be dealt with and my overall body will get some time to heal. I am also going to be starting cross country skiing and seeing if that's another addiction I can wrap myself around. I hear they have competitions too. But, that's later on and for right now I'm a marathoner.
My buddy Joe is coming with to do the half and we fly out on Friday. Ginny is a friend that I met while doing a relay in Massachusetts a couple of years ago. She is running the half as well, and is hosting us and a few others that are coming down from Canada. We will be staying with her until early Monday and then staying in old town to see the sites until Tuesday when we fly back. Let's just hope we can get around without doing too much walking. A really good friend from high school is coming down from DC to cheer me on. I am so excited to see her and meet her future husband. In addition to all that, another buddy I met while doing the same relay with Ginny, has offered to pace me for part of the 2nd half of my race. He just ran a 3:11 in the Detroit marathon a few weeks ago and I will be grateful for his services! That 3rd quarter of the race (around miles 14-21 or so) are where I think it is the hardest. You are counting down to hit 20 and then the last 10k. It's a long distance and every little bit of distraction will help. I hope the crowds come out in force. So I've got my plan in place and ready to put it into motion.
Like I said, it seems like it was not too long ago that I started this trek and now it's right at my doorstep. I'm so excited to get this thing going and cross that finish line with a 2 in the hour column. By this time next week, I should be done with goal in hand!
See you soon Philly!
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