Running update

Well, it's now less than 5 months until the Philly Marathon, which I still hope to run in. I'm still suffering from plantar fascitis since OCTOBER, but it's more of a nagging injury than the debilitating one it was several months ago. I've learned to do the right things as far as making sure I always wear my inserts and stretch (but not OVERstretch) before and after running. And of course resorting to the odd dose of Naproxen after particularly hard runs. I still lost some valuable training time over the Winter and part of Spring, but I'm starting to get back in the swing of things again. I just recently completed training runs of 3 miles at 23:30 with hills and 5 miles at 42:05 with MANY hills (tonight). My training runs are not at race pace, obviously, but I'm happy with where I'm at right now. I need to drop about 10 lbs., too, to get back into a more ideal race weight. I'm tentatively eyeing up two 5K runs for July and early August, to sharpen my lower end mileage runs a bit and get my speed up. "Official" marathon training starts August 1. At that point, I'll be seriously ramping up my long runs on the weekends, starting at 8 miles on week one and peaking at 20 miles at week 13. Weeks 14 and 15 are taper weeks (with the option of a 1/2 marathon on week 14), and week 16 is the marathon.

There are alot of people that I run into that think I'm nuts for attempting this. Also alot of people that probably secretively think I'm not going to do it. Well, I'm going to give it my best shot, and the only thing that could hold me back is my foot injury. I'm hopeful that it continues to just be no worse than a nuisance, but I understand there is a very real possibility that I could have a setback or two. So I need to be smart about it. But other than that, my mind is made up that come hell or high water, I'm going to finish this 26.2 mile bastard. It's just something that I want to be able to say that I did. An accomplishment that all the negative people in this region will just have to live with (although I'm sure there will be some that scoff because I don't run it in 2 hours and 30 min.). But enough of that. I'm doing this for ME and ME alone. I'm the only motivation I need for this. How far can I push my body and mind? That's the real question.

Running has always set me free. Free from the stresses of home, work, and life in general. While I've never tried anything NEAR this magnitude before, I'm comforted by the fact that along the way, through all of the blood, sweat, tears, and pain, I will find peace. The actual 26.2 miles that make up the marathon will be the exclaimation point on the long journey I am beginning to undertake in an attempt to reach my goal. I hope some of you will be there to cheer me on at the end.

s42