Closing In

"Only those who will risk going too far

can possibly find out how far they can go."

--T.S. ELIOT

I'm currently sitting around in the airport in Cleveland, killing time during a lenghty morning layover in my quest to reach Baltimore. And, I'm a little peeved, because the unfortunate travel/work schedule I have today might erase any window for me to squeeze in my planned three-mile easy run.

If I miss out on running today, though, it won't be the end of the world. After all, I'm tapering now, gradually decreasing my workout pace in the days before the Oct. 12 marathon. There is just a little more than two weeks left until the big day, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my playoff work schedule can help me out.

See, I'm down to follow the Mighty Tampa Bay Rays in the first round, and they could potentially meet up with the Chicago White Sox in Division Series. The South Siders blew it this week by being swept by the Twins, who now reside in first place in the Central. I'm hoping the Sox can take the division, so I can travel between St. Pete and Chi in the week before the race.

We'll see if the teams play along with my hopes. In a perfect world, it's be Rays-Sox in round one, with the series ending in Chicago, so I can hang out until the marathon. At least it looks like I won't be needing to fly between Tampa and L.A. this coming week. The last thing I need is jetlag disrupting my sleep as I prep for 26.2.

Anyway, things have been going well on the running front of late. This past Sunday, I woke at 5 a.m. and did 22 miles before heading to work. Besides a nasty blister, and some cramping, I did all right, averaging 8:20 per mile -- not including the few stops I took. It didn't go as well as my previous 18-miler, but it was the longest run of my life and it wasn't too far off my goal pace.

This week, during an 8-mile speed workout, I ran one mile in 5:56 -- topping my previous best mile of the last year by 1 second. That made me laugh some when I was scrolling through my splits on my handy-dandy Garmin. My other two fast miles during that run were 6:01 and 6:10. It's getting to the point where running a 7:30-45 mile seems easy.

With that in mind, I'm hoping that the adrenaline that comes with being in a race with 45,000 people in a big city with large crowds cheering us all on will help me hold the 8 minute pace I'd like to achieve in Chicago. I guess with this being my first marathon and all, I should just be happy when I cross the finish line -- no matter my time.

But, I know myself, and I've always had an ultra competitive side. It's rare that I walk away from something thinking I couldn't have done better. I remember back in my baseball days, I'd come home and my mom or dad would be proud of the two or three hits I got, and I'd be stewing over the one out I made.

That's how I've always been, but I'm trying to coach myself mentally to, not necessarily be satisfied by how I do, but to take pride in the achievement I'm about to complete. It's taken a lot of work to get to this point, there have been a few injuries, I've had to exercise will power more than any other time in my life, and it's all about to pay off.

I have the feeling, though, that when I cross the finish line, my family and friends will all be excited, and I'll see my time and immediately want to best it. I guess there are worse hobbies than running marathons. And, I know after finishing my first, I'll probably want to take on another soon with the newfound knowledge I have in hand.

Only a few more miles to go...

A Great Week

This was probably my best week of running since I decided I was going to run the marathon. And that's saying something, considering I'm just coming off a really frustrating left foot injury. The foot issue is gone and this week I put up some of the best splits since my high-school cross country days.

During a 7-mile speed workout on Thursday, I ran one of the miles in 5:57. That's my first sub-six-minute mile since high school, and I weighed 30 pounds less back then. For the entire speed workout, I averaged 8:11 per mile. Then, funny enough, I ran five miles normal the next day and also averaged exactly 8:11 per mile.

To top it off, I nearly duplicated that pace during an 18-mile run on Sunday night. I was only down to run 16, but I felt so good for the first eight miles that I decided tacking on another two wouldn't hurt. Besides a nasty cramp in my side around mile 15, my legs and body felt fantastic for the entire run.

Here were my splits for the 18 miles:

7:55/8:16/8:16/8:16/8:12/8:05/8:11/8:05/8:06 (short water break)
8:15/8:16/8:21/8:20/8:24/8:15 (cramped up)
8:54 (ran through cramp)
8:06/7:39

My goal of every run is to make my last mile my fastest. That way, I learn to push hard, but still leave enough in the tank to push even harder through the finish. Once the cramp died down, I was able to post two of my best splits in the last two miles. That was especially satisfying.

The whole run was in 2 hours, 28 minutes, 2 seconds, or 8:13 per mile. If I maintain that type of pace on marathon day, I'll finish in around 3 hours, 35 minutes. In a perfect world, my goal is to run the 26.2 in 3:30, so I'm on the right track. When I ran 20 miles a few weekends ago, I did so around 9:00/mile, so this run went much better.

My weekly mileage was 36, which is the most I've ever run in one week during this training. I'm off today, and this will be an easier week for me. I'm down to run 27 miles with no run more than 7 miles, but I might up my Sunday run to 10 to make up some for the two weeks I didn't run at all. Then, two Sundays from now, I'm scheduled to run 20 on my birthday.

Stay tuned for more...