Seebo's Run

A running commentary on my training and whatever else emerges from that.

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Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Friday, April 18, 2008

Watching Seebo in Boston

Ran an Art Museum loop. Beautiful morning and the usual. 6.5 miles, no time. I'm not getting too up on running this week. Just not feeling it, like I'm running just for the sake of fulfilling the obligation. On the bright side, no crises have popped up, yet.

Me and the kids are leaving for Boston this afternoon. We will make a road trip out of it, staying overnight at my mom's tonight and spending Saturday visiting some colleges that M is interested in before pulling into Boston on Saturday night in time to catch a Red Sox game. Sunday its the Trials and more colleges and dinner at the North End. Monday is marathon day and its one more college on Tuesday and the long ride home, with the goal to be back by 5 and in time for me to teach my Tuesday evening class.

For the record, like I've said before my goal is 2:40 and anything under 2:45 is very realistic. You can follow me online in real time starting at 10am on Monday on the Boston Marathon website (not sure the exact link) and, if you follow me you may want to compare my progress to Lance Armstrong's, as my true goal will be to best him. If I beat him I'll finish happy and if I don't, well, I'll still be happy.

If you do follow me online, here are some signs to how you'll know whether I'm doing well. The website gives you runner's times at successive 5k intervals. For me, if you see me hitting the 5k's in/around 19 minutes flat (a little faster is okay, a little slower for the first one is okay), then I'm doing well. If I'm ringing these up much faster than 19 flat then I'm running stupid, much slower and I'm likely hurting or the weather conditions are bad.

The website also give you runner's times at the halfway mark (13.1 miles). The way I run marathons is to focus on getting a desired halfway time, and then leave the second half of the race to fate and to my abilities. My plan is to cross the 13.1 mile mark in 1:20. Again, anything much off from that is an indicator that things aren't (slow) or won't be (fast) going well.

Third, the drama really starts after 25k. Judging from my goal pace, I should be hitting 25k (15.5 miles) in 1:34:30 or so. Thereafter the Newton hills (including Heartbreak Hill) start, and things get challenging. From there on in, the longer I can show 5k splits under 19 minutes the better I'll be running. Its that simple... and that hard.

The next time I post I'll probably be blathering about the race. Good luck to the many folks I know, either in real life or virtually, who will be running on Monday. And thanks for the good wishes that have been coming to me in all sorts of ways.

2 Comments:

Blogger ryandavid said...

Best wishes for Monday. I'm sure you'll put Lance in his place.

10:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seebo, best of luck man. Here's hoping your 2:40...

6:59 AM  

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