Saturday, October 27, 2007

The night before the Marine Corps Marathon

18 weeks ago, I began this training cycle in the first days of summer and 770 miles (1230K) later, I come to today. Today was a light day, and for the second day in a row, I ran without my GPS watch. It felt pretty good but I was a little sluggish. A little bout of soreness in some areas and my right calf muscle is a little on the tight side, and I hope it won't be a huge worry tomorrow.

I talked to the pacers at the expo and they advised I should arrive there early in order to line up with them. Jack, I believe, will be the 3:20 pacer and will run with balloons. So he'll be visible. I recall Chicago had three pacers per time slot so I hope I can see this pacer. If not, i'll really have to rely on my watch/time sheet to avoid starting out too fast. The first bit has lots of hills and I have to ensure it doesn't break me early so the key is to run it smartly, even if it's a little off pace, looking to get more time back on the downhill portions.

So that's my goal: 3:20. Same goal as last year but I'm better trained this year.

I plan to do a few new things on this blog in the next 24 hours. First, I'm playing with a mobile phone blogging tool that I'll use pre-race and post-race to get some thoughts down. Second, I believe I hooked up things so the alert system will post my times on this blog during the run in 5K intervals. Third, I'll do a photo blog before and after the race.

That's it. Blogging from a laptop is done for now. Next time, I'll be on the road. Time to rest up, eat pasta, sleep, visualize the race and kick some marathon ass.... (well, a little, anyways).

1 comment:

jellypepper said...

...it's hours before the marathon.... you must be eating a bagel by now..

i have no doubt that you are better prepared this year to hit your goal. your discipline and focus throughout this training cycle has clearly shown you are stronger physically, but more importantly, mentally.

now go kick some butt.