Week 15 - Marathon training update

18 Miles!! WooHoo - I’m happy to report that the old man’s legs lasted 18 miles Saturday. Although 18 miles is a very long way its still not 26.2; I don’t think I could have made 26 miles. I was pretty fatigued the last 2 miles; it was starting to get very hot and humid. This track had some significant hills so that added to the challenge. This coming week will be a recovery week with a 12 mile run on Saturday. Its hard to believe the summer is pretty much over – time flies when you are not having fun :>)

I’ve never had any problems with cars or dogs while running until last week. Normally it’s still dark during the beginning of my early morning runs. One day last week, I was running against traffic in my normally quiet neighborhood and saw a car coming towards me. I ensured that I stayed in the “gutter” area and kept my eyes on the approaching vehicle. Right before the car reached me, a dog came running at me from my blind side with a vicious bark and startled me so much that I came very close to jumping right in front of the approaching car. If I die tragically that is not the way I want to go. Dying while exercising just causes too many people to say “I told you exercising was not good for you”

Like most sporting activities there are a million products out there making guarantees of better performance. Nutrition is one area allot of companies target runners. In addition to Gatorade and Power Bars everything from Sport Beans to liquid carbs is marketed to runners. Recently, in addition to the sport beans, liquid carbs, and power bars (yea, I’m a sucker for anything that promises to make running easier), I’ve been trying a new product called “Joint Juice”. Supposedly it helps keep your joints “lubed” while running. It tastes a little like WD40 so maybe it really does work.

I had another good week as far as donations go; several who told me early on they’d be making a donation came through; just like the miles the donations are beginning to “pile up” – so thank you. I now have over 48 individuals who’ve made donations from as far away as Hawaii and even Iraq. It feels good knowing all of you are behind me; you really provide allot of motivation. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is for me to get out of bed at 5am each morning and begin pounding out the miles in the dark. To keep from rolling over and hitting the snooze button I imagine I have 48 people reminding me to get up and get with it.