1000 Miles

"We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon." -Emil Zatopek

I have passed 1000 miles so far in my running journey. As the crow flies from Portland Oregon, I’d be approaching Wisconsin about now. I started my training on the evil date of 6/6/6, about 9 ½ months ago. My first week was 2 miles every other day on a treadmill while my son was taking swimming lessons. That seems so long ago now. I calculate I have spent at least 154 hours running so far. The shear amount of time and dedication that goes into marathon training is tremendous. I wonder if I would have known then, what I do now… would I have ever started this journey? I like to believe I would have… because in the end… it IS worth it. Yes it is more work than I thought it would be, but yes I still think it is worth it.

Last night I dreamt about running a marathon. It was, of course, a very strange dream. Running dreams are not that unusual to me. In high school (and even after) I used to have a reoccurring dream where I was running laps around the inside of the school… past the classrooms and lockers endlessly… around and around and around. As far as dreams go… it wasn’t exactly one of those exciting ones, but it is strange to look back now and remember I was always dreaming about running.

In the dream last night I can remember waking up before the race and drinking water, and worrying that I hadn’t drank enough in the preceding days to prepare. I mean… of course not… I had no idea that I’d go to sleep and find myself on the morning of my marathon. =) Anyway… things got very strange from there. I showed up to the starting line a bit late… and there were a lot of my friends there too. I am not really sure why they were going to try to run a marathon… but there they were. I can remember searching for a pace marker… and the first one I saw was 9:15. Too slow I thought… and surged through the crowd looking for 8:45.

When I finally did, it was way too near the front of the race. I remember telling someone the good runners must have started from somewhere else… or early. I also remember that for some reason the marathon was in New York, not Eugene. After the race started… I remember discovering I have my nice leather jacket on. (Obviously not something I should be running in) I knew I couldn’t run the whole race with it on, so I looked for a place to ditch it… but it was expensive, so I was in a bit of a quandary there. In the next phase there was a great deal of confusion about where the actual course was. I can remember we were trying to follow a blue line on the road. Eventually we followed the blue line to a huge park where the whole park was blue. Apparently it was the blue paint dumping ground for the world. Another time there were so many blues lines crossing every which way, we couldn’t tell which way to run. The race ended abruptly when I realized my alarm clock didn’t go off in the real world… and I was going to be late to work. Joy.

My long runs (over 10 miles) so far have been:

09/24/06 13.1

10/15/06 10

11/12/06 12

11/25/06 14

12/03/06 16

12/17/06 18

01/07/07 12

01/21/07 14

01/28/07 16

02/04/07 18

02/17/07 20

03/11/07 21

03/18/07 14

I have just one more really long run (22-23 miles) in two weeks, and then 12,14,10 during my taper. I am almost there!

43 Mile week

Just topped off my 2nd ever 43 mile week, and you know what? I feel pretty darn good. I will be feeling it a bit on tomorrow’s 14 mile run I bet… but all in all… I am very happy. My old legs are not failing me yet. My knee though… ;) It is actually hanging in there too. I have taken to ice baths after long runs and icing after every run, and it is doing OK. Definitely better than before. It is almost to the point where I don’t have to limp after running. My main goal… not to injure myself between now and the marathon!

Endurance wise I think I will be OK. My speed will not be where I wish it was for my first… but hey… the main goal should just be finishing… and finish I will if I can make it to the starting line.

Today was just a wonderful day. Sunny and 70. It is very much like the whether (well, not as hot) way back last summer when I started running. I ran straight through Summer, Fall, Winter… and now I am breaking through into the nice weather again. It seems so tremendously long ago that I started running. I can’t believe my first marathon will be over in a short month and a half.

Into the last six miles

I am about to embark on what I hope will be my longest run ever. Twenty one miles. I am not sure that my knee is up for it, but I have less than two months to go before the marathon and I just have to go for it. I have been icing my knee off and on for days… and loading on ibuprofen. (And drinking a lot of water of course) Now it is time for the test. I know that I have the heart and determination to finish it, but physically I don’t know whether my knee is going to cooperate. I figure if it can’t and I push it too far… well… I’d miss the marathon anyway if I can’t train right now. It is a nice day for running. It is raining… but it is about 60 degrees. Nice for this time of year. Twenty one at forty one (just had my b-day). Time to find out what this old body can do.


Well I did it. I have tipped my toe into the pool that is the last six miles. From the reading on marathons I have done… there are really two races… the first one to 20 miles… and then… the last six miles. I have always figured that I could run 20 miles. It is that second race I need to conquer.

For my 21 mile run today… I took it a lot more conservatively that I have some of my previous long runs. After spending a few weeks on the verge of not being able to run because of my knee… I decided… maybe I should ease up a bit. I set my watch for 9:15 miles, and ended up at 9:17 after falling off a bit the last mile. I can tell those last 6 will take everything I have. The only rule I broke today is that I ran over 3 hours… 3 hours and 15 minutes to be exact.

Immediately after the run I took and ice bath. Last time I was cold and took a hot bath… big mistake… I think that amplified my leg pain. I won’t know whether the ice bath did any good for a few more days… but so far I feel ok. Ok… I don’t *really* feel ok… but I am trying to be positive about the whole thing. I do feel good on the inside. Normally I can’t write so soon after a run like that. Normally it will be a few days before I try to blog, just because it takes so much out of me and I feel it would just be a whine loaded report about all my aches and pains.

I’m so pumped! My knee held up… I ran my longest run ever… and I touched the last six miles! Eugene… here I come!!!

Hanging on

Reluctantly, my left knee is once again marching along like a good soldier. Oh it still whines, but so far it is not balking at picking my foot up, and putting it back down. Again… and again… and again… and again. Tuesday before I went out to run I was nervous. Would my knee hold up? Would all the work I have put forth so for be wasted? My wife, bless her heart, said it wouldn’t be wasted, but as those miles applied to my goal of running a marathon, well… in that respect it would be for naught.

I have passed 900 miles in my running journey! Hoorah!

Less than 2 months to the marathon now! I know I won’t be able to sleep the night before… which obviously will not help my cause at all. Oh well… I will try to get more rest in the days leading up to it.

Yesterday I was passed for the first time ever on one of my training runs. I feel bad too… because I was stopped at an intersection when I saw the other runner coming up. He was shuffling his feet like he was taking baby steps. I thought to myself… no way can you run fast like that! Well, I headed off in front of him while he took off his jacket, but a few minutes later Mr. Shufflefoot scooted on by me. It is amazing at how many different running styles there are. Serves me right for thinking he couldn’t run fast. Now… I am not a blazer myself… I was running 8:47 miles yesterday on my 8 mile run, but just the mechanics of that stride would seem to work against speed.

Speaking of 8:47… that pace seems to come up a lot on my runs. I think it is my marathon pace… at least for the first run. It is the pace for my first 20 miler. If I kept that pace for a marathon I’d finish in 3:50. If I keep 9:07 pace… I hit right at 4 hours. Honestly… if I managed 8:47 for 20 miles in a training run, I could probably up it quite a bit for the race. Can I ever reach the 7:44 I’d need to qualify for Boston? That will be decided in the future. Right now… 8:47 is my magic pace.