Wednesday Morning
Met KJ/Silas and Deirdre this morning at 6:30, a little later than usual and we went north to do a slightly twisted version of the Acme loop. Deirdre is now unofficially Dr. Deirdre, as she successfully defended her dissertation last week. As Deirdre is the best marathoner I know, I'm sure she is well aware of the parallels between what it takes to do a marathon and what it takes to do a dissertation. But fortunately for all of us except the most masochistic, you only write a dissertation once.
Speaking of marathons, part of the Acme loop was up "Paul's Hill", named after the same Paul who ran a 3:10 Chicago Marathon over the weekend (because he charged up that damn hill like an idiot every morning we ran with him). He emailed me with a report of the race which I'm tempted to repost here but its a little long. John, who ran a 3:05 last weekend, posted his full report on his blog. I mention both of them together because they are very similar. In many respects they have been racing Chicago for the last few months, as they each took a solid training base with them, as well as the self-discipline to set a realistic goal pace and to stick with it. Each of their accounts read like clockwork, banging out steady mile splits with the absence of any drama and resisting the urge to go faster although they felt fine and the pace felt slow. The main difference was that at the end John still had enough gas to where he could pick up the pace and negative split, where Paul started to fade toward the end but still had enough of a cushion to hold on. If earlier he did not keep what he thought at the time was a slow pace, he likely would have blown up over the last miles. Textbook accounts of how to run a marathon. As a result both are going to Boston, and I'm seriously considering going up as well.
In the blog entry before this one you'll see that I scanned a check I got in the mail yesterday. $250 for third place masters finish at PDR. I don't know whether I should cash it or frame it. I'm not big on keeping trophies and medals and the like, but this one is different. PDR is a world class half marathon, and I ran my first one, in 1997, with a respectable but somewhat pedestrian time of 1:28:30. Never did I imagine then that I could be running this for prize money someday. And I think that's what this check means. If I could do this, what other things can I take on, in spite of my limited vision, and get similar results? That's why I'd like to have that check hanging on a wall and staring at me.
In John's aforementioned blog entry he gives me a quick mention as helping him to keep going. Thanks John, that means alot to me. If I have any influence on you or the other three g. or so people who read this, then think of the places you can take your running, or any other parts of your lives, and think big. And I hope I can live by that. It brings to mind a Nelson Mandela line I heard quoted in a speech a few weeks back: "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than one you are capable of living."
There, now I made myself cry. I think that is one of the differences in this training cycle from previous ones - at any given time lately there have been about five different things that can make me cry. Now I better go before I give in to the temptation to write something cynical and sabotage all this.
Ten miles in 84:14.
Speaking of marathons, part of the Acme loop was up "Paul's Hill", named after the same Paul who ran a 3:10 Chicago Marathon over the weekend (because he charged up that damn hill like an idiot every morning we ran with him). He emailed me with a report of the race which I'm tempted to repost here but its a little long. John, who ran a 3:05 last weekend, posted his full report on his blog. I mention both of them together because they are very similar. In many respects they have been racing Chicago for the last few months, as they each took a solid training base with them, as well as the self-discipline to set a realistic goal pace and to stick with it. Each of their accounts read like clockwork, banging out steady mile splits with the absence of any drama and resisting the urge to go faster although they felt fine and the pace felt slow. The main difference was that at the end John still had enough gas to where he could pick up the pace and negative split, where Paul started to fade toward the end but still had enough of a cushion to hold on. If earlier he did not keep what he thought at the time was a slow pace, he likely would have blown up over the last miles. Textbook accounts of how to run a marathon. As a result both are going to Boston, and I'm seriously considering going up as well.
In the blog entry before this one you'll see that I scanned a check I got in the mail yesterday. $250 for third place masters finish at PDR. I don't know whether I should cash it or frame it. I'm not big on keeping trophies and medals and the like, but this one is different. PDR is a world class half marathon, and I ran my first one, in 1997, with a respectable but somewhat pedestrian time of 1:28:30. Never did I imagine then that I could be running this for prize money someday. And I think that's what this check means. If I could do this, what other things can I take on, in spite of my limited vision, and get similar results? That's why I'd like to have that check hanging on a wall and staring at me.
In John's aforementioned blog entry he gives me a quick mention as helping him to keep going. Thanks John, that means alot to me. If I have any influence on you or the other three g. or so people who read this, then think of the places you can take your running, or any other parts of your lives, and think big. And I hope I can live by that. It brings to mind a Nelson Mandela line I heard quoted in a speech a few weeks back: "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than one you are capable of living."
There, now I made myself cry. I think that is one of the differences in this training cycle from previous ones - at any given time lately there have been about five different things that can make me cry. Now I better go before I give in to the temptation to write something cynical and sabotage all this.
Ten miles in 84:14.
posted by seebo | 9:10 AM
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