Marathon Game Plan ! - # 23395 !

so this is the plan. it was easy to develop it in excel and overlay onto the elevation.

i've run boston twice before - age 50 and 51 - and now 52. both times i learned a lot.

Now it needs to be stated i didn't train - at all - other than my normal daily running - for the past two marathons and i didn't train for this - again - my last one - as were the other two - each my last.

The first time i was frightened since i had no idea if i could run 26.2 miles. It wasn't that i didn't think i could do it - i didn't know that i could do it - that was the scary part. Well i did my first one - age 50 - never thought here was a reason to do it before and now that i had done it i didn't think i needed to do it again. My 10 toes KILLED me after heartbreak hill. every downward step made my toes slip a nano something and they KILLED!

so the second time i ran was kind of accidental. Last year - 2005 - my good friend got me a number again - thanks to you Paul again & again - and whalah - there i was again. Well this one i took care of my toes. SO there was no toe problem. However once that was taken care of i ran into - no pun intended - my thighs KILLED after heartbreak hill - and that slowed me down a LOT - they HURT!

So now you also have to remember as orthogonal as it is i smoke two packs of cigs per day for 35 years or so. No attitude about it - it's just true.

And finally these medals are cool. They give it to you within about 3-5 minutes from the end - they're very organized and it's very cool. I usually don't run the next day or so - since my legs are stiff and hurt some - not a lot - but some. but when i do run the next time after the marathon - i really want to run with the medal on. it's not so much to have others see it - but more so to recognize myself for having done something that's just plain old hard to do.