I’m often asked how I can stand running so far.  Don’t you get bored? No, I’ve never really gotten bored.  I might get “tired,” but it’s not the same as getting “tired of it.”

Doesn’t it hurt? Yes, it hurts.  Sometimes.  Sometimes it’s just an ache in my knee, or soreness in my hip.  Sometimes it’s more like bones and muscles exploding, tearing themselves apart.  Sometimes you realize that the jangly bits have been jangling a little too much.  Side stitches are pretty common.  Joy once asked me how to make them go away, and I shrugged.  “Keep running.”  I’ve gone over two miles with a side stitch.  The most recent Runner’s World noted that “runners are conditioned to run through discomfort…”  I would add, “because we’re stupid enough to think that it might go away.”
Don’t you ever want to quit?  All the time.  But the only thing more humiliating than not doing it in the first place is quitting.  Even in terrible pain, puking, bleeding from your eyeballs, you feel a bit of guilt for quitting when you know, just another mile or two and the bleeding would stop.

This week was basically a repeat of last week - but I bought new shoes to do it.  I love my new Asics Kayano 13’s.  Two miles on Monday; I didn’t bother keeping time, since this was basically a recovery run after Saturday.  Thursday night I ran another 8-miler, and I set a new personal best! I ran four miles out, and each mile running back was faster than that segment the first time.  My first and last mile were both under 8 minutes, 7:49 and 7:33.  My average overall was 8:04, and my total was 64:32.  I can’t wait for the marathon to be over so I can start playing with my runs - now I want to run an eight under sixty minutes.

Joy had to work late on Saturday, so we went out on Sunday instead for this week’s 20-miler.  I wish there was something interesting to report - actually, no, I don’t.  That would probably mean an injury.  This week went WAY better than last week.  I had no real issues, just the standard aches.  I took two short voluntary walks at miles 10 (Gu and Gatorade) and 16.5 (more Gatorade), but other than that, I ran everything.  I kicked the last mile home and actually had my third-best mile of the run, at 8:47 (the others were 8:44 and 8:46).  My average was still higher than I would like, about 9:21, but I can live with that.  I improved my time over last week by roughly 13 minutes, for a whopping 3:07:17.  In a magical world, I can still break four hours for the marathon if I can run the last 6.2 at an 8:30 pace.

But we all know I have to do better than that to beat jules.

Last Friday was a 5K run at work.  I didn’t run because I knew it would blow my chances on the 20.  Two of my runner coworkers, Steve and Bosco “the Kenyan” ran; Bosco was third in 19:46, and Steve came in around 10th.  I told both of them they were lucky, because I’d have schooled them.  Bosco was like, “yeah okay whatever” and I told him I would have drafted him for three miles then smoked him at the end.

After the marathon, they said, I’m going to have to prove it.  Sometime in June, probably, I’ll be racing them around the trails at work.  Oh God.

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