One Week And Counting

It seems like only yesterday that I made the decision to attempt to run a marathon and began training. That yesterday though was last August and after 7+ months and 608 miles, that day is almost here.

Has my training been perfect? Nope, far from it but there is nothing I can do about that now.

Things started off well enough but once October rolled around, the wheels started to fall off. First I had a couple business trips where I couldn't run and then I got sick. Once I was feeling good enough to run I developed a bout of achilles tendinitis out of nowhere. This put me on the shelf for a few weeks with the only run I did was a scheduled half.

Just when I thought I was over that and training started to get going again I developed extensor tendinitis, first in my right foot and then in my left. In hindsight, this was because I tried to come back right where I had left off and ran way too many miles after the layoff.

Note to self, don't do that again.

After a tough 19 miler at the end of December I essentially shut it down save for a light Sunday run and some XT, just so I could keep my fitness level up for a half in January.

That's the bad, now here's the good. I took 2 weeks off, coming back this past week with some shortish runs where I experienced no pain during and little or no pain afterward. This weekend was my first runs on consecutive days since December, a fast 5 miler yesterday and an easy 8 miler today, and I am happy to report that both feet feel great.

One other thing like I like to do 2 weeks out from a longer race is eschew sugar and carbs to get my body conditioned to the feeling of being fuel depleted on the road. More importantly it gets my mind right for dealing with it when I'm on the course. Sure it makes the training runs tougher than they have to be but I feel it's better to face adversity in training and know how to get through it than it is to face it in a race for the first time.

All things being equal I feel I'm in a pretty good place heading into my toughest physical test to date. My body feels good, my mind is right and it's all systems go. Weather looks to be good with temps in the mid 50's for the 7 am start and into the mid 70's as the race progresses.

When I first got into this, the goal was to BQ at 3:20 but that soon changed to a sub 4 hour finish. Now the only thing I care about is finishing under my own power and getting one of these....

I'll let you all know how it goes next week at this time.

Wish me luck.