18 Miles... Only 8 more?

Actually, 8.2, but who's counting?

This past weekend saw the miraculous achievement of 18 miles. I ran along a busy highway in Syracuse, NY. There's a little side walk along the way. So here I was, running next to a Best Buy, a Mall, a Bed Bath & Beyond... yes, a BB&B! I also attempted my toughest hill during the training. I ended up running up it and not stopping, which took about every positive, optimistic bone in my body to defeat my naturally cynical viewpoint on most things in life. What a terrible sentence. See?

Then I ran past Syracuse University. Ah, old mems. Mems. I got to run through a graveyard and then past the house I lived with 4 dudes and a lady. Oh 814 Lancaster. I then ran by my apt of debauchery where my Senior year was spent. How I survived that apt I'll never know. No heat. Constant drinking. Many poor decisions. One painting of a cat. Just insanity.

Think the run is done yet? Nope that only takes us up to mile 13. I wanted to kill someone.

I ran the final 5 miles back, walking probably 4 of them when all was said and done. I ran the final mile strong, realizing I still had plenty of gas in the tank, which was encouraging. Once home, I fell face first into my bed and fell asleep with my hat over my eyes. And passed out for about 2 hours. Then I went out for a Garden Burger and friends!

So. This is where I am. This week is a 8 mile, then the monster is next weekend. I am routing where to run the 20 miles. I think I might drive to Long Island and find a nice park away from the city.

I kind of want to hire someone to drive in front of me during the 20 mile run and yell at me through a blowhorn. Any takers?

A Solid Month has passed since my last post...

And here I am. Now pretty much a month out from the set Kentucky Marathon. And how do I feel? I just want it to be the day. April 26th.

I've hit the point in training where it's just become a game of forcing myself to go and do these runs. Knowing that the marathon will be much tougher than what I'm running now is the only thing that gets me out there....fear. I ran 16 miles last weekend, my longest run to date. I finished with a time of 3 hours and 10 minutes, with one bathroom break. So...that's pretty decent. Aren't you glad I told you about that bathroom break, too?

I figure I'll come in at a solid 5 hours with some change. I'm perfectly excited with that. In fact, that's stupendous to me. To go from being this 200+ kid in high school (youch!) to now being able to run a full marathon astounds me. And just makes me do little dances in front of strangers on public transportation. It's either that realization that makes me dance or my lack of shame. Both most likely play a part.

I can honestly see myself getting really into the half-marathon circuit for a while. I enjoy running up until around that 12 mile mark and then I'm just like...I'm sorry, seriously 14.2 more miles? Really? So after this Kentucky one, for which I now believe I can do, I'll take a break from the full marathon runs. I think I'll possibly head down for the Disney one in January.

This upcoming weekend, I venture to do the 18 mile run. And then two weeks following on week 15, I will be engaging in the 20 mile run. Then it's taper time. I know I haven't been as vigilant with my weekly workouts, missing possibly 2 a week sometimes (youch!) but I don't cheat myself on the long runs. I do those and work those out.

I believe thats the key to the success. I think whenever someone tells me "I couldn't possibly run a marathon," I realize that it's not because that person couldn't run a marathon. Everyone can potentially run a marathon. Even without training. You will want to kill yourself after doing so. But I guess a marathon is like any other thing in life (yes get ready for the deep metaphor prose time) that you need to invest yourself into believing you can do. It's not impossible. It's just work. And belief.

God, I better finish this marathon otherwise, I am just going to look super silly for writing things like the deep thoughts above. You are all free to punch me in the stomach if I say things like that to you in person.

Also...I cannot believe it's March already. Yeesh. Oh no I'm sorry. Youch!