Getting closer

The big day is approaching, and the (made up) weather forecast is hanging in there.

Starting to get excited...

In the meantime, I've been wasting my time making up pacing charts. I don't think I'll carry one, but I'm hoping some of my friends will come out to cheer me on. I've been trying to figure out approximately when I'll be at various locations around the city.

I turned it into an evite (which some of you may have gotten). If not, you can check it out.

Also, for those interested in tracking me, my race number is 25872. I've also created a google group which should send out emails. I believe you can sign up to the google group yourself - you can add your email address, or your cell phone number if you know the email form. (e.g. number@vtext.com for verizon, number@cingularme.com for cingular/at&t, etc.) If it doesn't work, just send me an email and I'll add you to the list.

Expo tomorrow...!

Less than a week to go!

It's hard to believe it's so close. I'm still excited and nervous. I've also started that bad habit of stressing about the weather. I check out the extended forecasts, which I'm starting to think are just randomly generated. When I checked last Friday, I saw this:

It called for rain on Saturday as well, so it seemed pretty convincing. It was mildly upsetting, but even more so after yesterday was an absolutely *perfect* day for a marathon. One week too early.

In any case, this is what it looks like today:

All mention of rain is gone from the next 10 days, and the chance of precipitation is down to 10%. I'd love to get excited, but I think it's still too early.

Like I said, it's a bad habit.

Anyway, still feeling well. I had a tough run yesterday, but it turns out I was running faster than I thought. I went to Central Park to run the last few miles of the marathon. My Garmin never works perfectly there, so I never pay too much attention to it when I'm there. However, when I was done with 5 miles I was only at 40 minutes. So no wonder it was tough. I finished off another 5 miles at the same pace, for my final long run. Pretty exciting to be done with that.

I'm still totally confused about my goals for this marathon. My one and only finish time is 4:43:50. Barring major problems, I should be able to beat that easily. Originally, my goal had been to get under 4 hours. I still think of that as my primary goal, but I can tell I'm capable of much more than that already. I'd like to run a little faster , but I definitely don't want to tire at the end of the race, and have another bad experience on First Avenue.

I'm thinking that I'll try and settle into a 9 minute per mile pace in the first few miles, and see how that goes for 10 miles or so. It's fairly uncommon, but I'd like to end up with a negative split for the race. If I'm feeling good in the second half, I'll try and pick up some time there.

Bad Blogging

With all the traveling, I felt like the stuff I had to post here kept growing. Then it became overwhelming. Combined with my computer being really slow lately, I basically neglected this blog.

You know when you haven't spoken to a friend in a while, how it then gets more difficult to call that person? Since you now need to have a "real" conversation, you now need to find "real time" to call. Then you keep pushing it off and off until it becomes even more of a problem. (Does this just happen to me?) Anyway, sometimes you just have to call when you have a chance, even if it's a quick call.

So this is it. A quick-ish update.

After the Toronto Half, I took it easy the first run back, but then went back to schedule. I ran 10 miles on Tuesday, speedwork on Wednesday, and then my long run on Sunday. I woke up at 4:45 to get 15 miles in before heading to New Orleans for the American College of Surgery.

While I was there, I was inducted as a Fellow in the college. Most surgeons eventually get to this point, but it's nice to have it done with anyway. It was a nice ceremony, and I now have a few extra letters to put on my business card. (FACS - Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.)



I ran some speedwork along the waterfront in New Orleans. It wasn't really a good place to run, and it was really hot. But it's always nice to run in a new city. It really allows you to see it from a different perspective.

New Orleans itself was awesome. I heard a lot of great music, and had a really fun time. (Oh, and the conference was good too!)

I did my tempo run when I got back, and was set for my long run on Sunday. Only that I had to be down in Baltimore for a wedding at noon. So I went down Saturday night, arriving at 1 am. And then got up at 6 to get my 20 miles in before the wedding. (Of course I ran into the Susan G. Komen "run", but since this is a "quick" update, I'll leave that out.)

The run was great, along a beautiful trail. It was found and suggested to me by the bride. Some of you may remember her as Running Skirt.


Congratulations to the happy couple.

This past week I did 8 x 800 intervals at the track on Tuesday. Ouch. And some tempo work on Thursday. This morning I did 13 miles. It ended up being somewhere around an 8:51 pace, but I was really struggling. Ok, I did it late, and it was in the mid 70's, but still it was tough. A little discouraging, but overall I think I'm much better trained than I've ever been.

So two weeks to go until the NYC Marathon. I'm excited, anxious, (and a little burn out). I can't wait for it to be here (and to be done with it)! I'll think I'll talk about my marathon goals another time. For now, I'm hoping that these little sore areas on my toes are not becoming blisters...