Wish me luck. Tomorrow morning I will attempt to run 26.2 miles, for the first time ever!
That right, for the first time ever! You may recall that I trained for a marathon last year. Alas, I never actually ran in the marathon. I trained for weeks, only to succumb to injury a few days before the race (I tweaked a nerve in my knee immeately followed by a freakish lower back injury).
Anyway, that was a year ago… let’s not think about those times.
Recent set-backs aside (I “strained” my left Achilles heal 2.5 weeks ago and I fell ill for 3 days last week) I am confident I’ll be able to finish the race. A “good’ finishing time on the other hand, well, that’s something else altogether… of course, I didn’t embark on this endeavor with high hopes of attaining a “competitive” time… that would have been silly (at 5’-7” 170 # I don’t exactly have the build of a “runner”). Alas, my goal has always been to complete a marathon, and, so tomorrow morning I hope to accomplish this goal. (Even though this has always been my stated goal… between you I, I was secretly hoping to finish in 4 hours. This will be my first marathon, and so to be quite honest I have no idea if this is a good time or not, but based on a couple of 20-mile runs @ a ~9:00 min/mile pace, I hope to project similar results over 26 miles. I guess only time will tell.)
Regarding my recent injuries, some (friends and family) have expressed concern for my decision to run. I feel that I should explain these recent events to help puts inquiring minds at ease. Truly, I was only sick for a few days. A loss of energy and a head cold with the sniffles, it was only a nuisance at its worst. Being sick only prevented me from running for 3 days or so. In hindsight, seeing that it came on during the tail-end of my “recovery” from my Achilles injury, my being sick may actually prove to have been a blessing in disguise (forcing me more time off of my Achilles). This brings me to my dear, sweet, precious ankle… more specifically, my Achilles tendon. I just want to say that I will be the first one to throw in the towel and call it quits if I feel that I could jeopardize my health. I realize how important this tendon is, and, how finicky it can be when it comes to injury and recovery. Believe me, I am well aware that damage to my Achilles can be permanent, and I would never do anything to put myself in permanent harm’s way.
And so, with that said, I am going to see if I can get any sleep tonight. The race starts @ 6:30 am, and I need to meet my racing partner (Omar) by 5:30 so we can bullshit and bask in our soon-to-be-realized glory (this is nothing new, it’s become somewhat of a tradition on our Sunday morning runs).
If you want to check out my running log over the past few weeks I’ve posted it here
