Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Monday, December 7, 2009

Symmetry

When you're 7 going on 8, you visit the doctor, get a shot, and get a sucker.

When you're 48 going on 49, you visit the doctor, get a prostate exam, and get a Viagra sample.

Training for The Cowtown is going well. Hopefully, I will post a chart soon.

Monday, October 5, 2009

DNF - Marathon, Australia, and Marriage

This time last year I had flown to Anchorage for work before flying to Melbourne for a meeting and, while I was there, run a marathon and have a vacation of a lifetime. If you read my training report from September and October, it should be clear that I was not ready to run a marathon. My training was suitable for about 18 miles.

During the 2008 Melbourne Marathon, I managed to run 30km, or 18.6 miles before I slowed to a walk and finally stopped. DNF - did not finish. I caught a ride back to the cricket stadium. I trained to run 18 miles, and I ran 18 miles. I didn't respect the distance.

While in Australia, Deborah and I visited Melbourne, Adelaide, the Barossa Valley, Lizard Island, and Sydney. If I had it to do over again, I would spend the majority of my time in Sydney. Overall, the trip was disappointing. A DNF across the continent.

The race report has been delayed while I got over both a marathon and Australian DNF. I'm still not over it.

The trip had been planned for months. Initially, it was supposed to be a honeymoon, but Deborah and I didn't get married. Except for the marathon, it was also supposed to be a romantic trip - wine country tours, a romantic exclusive island resort, a little nude sunbathing, making love on the beach, etc. Didn't quite work out as planned.

I envisioned thinking about our fantasy island vacation for years, and I still think about it, but not in a "hey, that was cool" kind of way.

It took a year to write about it, but life goes on, and I'm ready for what's next. And what's next is the Cowtown Marathon on February 28, 2010. I couldn't stop with that Melbourne disaster, so I'm going to run another marathon. (Aside: I was supposed to run a fall marathon, but I broke my left foot in June.) I'm into week 3 of my 16 week training schedule, and all is well. I'm too old and heavy, but I could have said that every year since 2001. If I can manage to get in my long runs in January and February, I'll run the Cowtown.

My next post won't take a year.