I lost, 6-5

Yup, Kelly outlasted me at the gym today, running six miles to my five. OK, five miles was all my routine called for today. But regardless, Kell's showing was the longest continuous run of her life, which is pretty cool for her. She wanted to do six to stick it to me after I gave her a hard time for taking the day off yesterday. Well played.

Since I posted last, I've logged 18 miles in five days, with an off-day on Monday. My goal this week is to run 30 miles, which would give me an even 300 for the offseason only three days shy of departing for Florida. I was hoping to have more by this point, but more than a week off after Christmas and a minor leg injury last month put me back some.

Word is slowly getting out that I'm training to run a marathon. As I'm getting closer to getting back to work, I've run into more fellow scribes and the usual reaction is along the lines of either "Wow, good for you," or "Geez, you're a crazy person." I've also found a couple coworkers who have marathon experience and I plan on hitting them up with questions and for tips in the coming months.

As for my recent runs, my handy dandy watch has all the info. Today I cracked up because my third and fourth miles were identical in time and steps (7:43/1344). I guess I was locked in my zone. I'm typically averaging around 7:30-40 per mile on runs of 5-7 miles. In six of my last seven runs -- ranging between 3-7 miles -- I've also clocked between 6:40-7:02 for my final mile, meaning I'm getting good at stepping it up a notch in the home stretch.

Here are my mile splits for my recent runs around the track:

Jan. 28: 3 miles -- 8:01/7:10/6:50 = 22:01
Jan. 29: 5 miles -- 7:45/7:48/7:44/7:25/7:32 = 38:16
Jan. 31: 7 miles -- 7:57/8:02/7:47/9:01/8:10/7:47/7:02 = 55:48
Feb. 2: 5 miles -- 7:53/7:48/7:31/8:02/6:40 = 37:57
Feb. 3: 3 miles -- 7:23/7:02/6:41 = 21:06
Feb. 5: 5 miles -- 7:59/8:01/7:49/7:54/7:01 = 38:47
Feb. 6: 5 miles -- 7:30/7:41/7:43/7:43/6:57 = 37:36

I'm hoping, in a perfect world, to be able to average around eight minutes per mile during the marathon. So I'm shooting for something around three and a half hours to three hours and 45 minutes. That probably means I'll finish around four hours. We'll see. I'll see how I hold up on some longer runs in the coming weeks.