The Long Beach Marathon is Sunday, and I’m getting pretty excited about it! It’s something I’ve been looking forward to since January. It’s going to be my 26th full marathon and it’ll probably be my fourth slowest (although hopefully just my seventh slowest). As a lot of you know, though, I’m not excited that I’m running the Long Beach Marathon. I’m excited that my wife is running the Long Beach Marathon.
Before I talk about my wife, I’ll just do a quick introduction to those of you who are visiting for the first time. I’m a married father of three (8, 6, 3 1/2) and my middle child, Jack, is severely autistic. In 2010, I’m planning on running 60 marathons to raise awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. This blog is my reality show … when I write it. Anyways, back to my wife …
Tiff told me in January, a couple of weeks after she ran her first (and only) half marathon, that she wanted to run a full. The original plan was for San Diego on May 31, but she got injured and it didn’t happen. She’s battled through some dings this summer, but she’s gonna give it a go on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to running a marathon with her.
I feel pretty lucky to be able to run marathons. Most people don’t know what it’s like to take 26.2-mile running tours of various cities. Even when I run sub-par races, I know I’m fortunate to be able to enjoy the experience. And now, I’m going to get to share this experience with my wife! How lucky am I? How lucky is she? Nah … how lucky am I!?!?
So, just bear with me this week. I’m gonna keep talking about her. Can’t help it. She’s doing carb depletion right now (no carbs, which helps her store glycogen better when she starts carb loading on Thursday). I hate doing that, but fortunately for me, I’m treating Sunday as a training run and I don’t have to deal with that. When I have goal races, though, I deplete and I hate it. It works for me, though, so I do it. She has a minor inflammation problem in her right leg at this point, but it’s nothing that’s going to keep her from running. I talked to her about it at dinner time last night and it’s basically something that’s going to be a test of how tough she is. We’ll see.
But yeah, I’m excited. Really excited. Marathon courses are my playground and I can’t wait to show her around. I really hope it’s a positive experience for her, because first marathons should be fun. I guess that’s up to me, because I’m the tour guide.
Running Update
I nailed my long run over the weekend. I ran 28.3 miles and felt great. I didn’t really set out to run the miles quickly, and I didn’t. But the past two weeks, I cut my long runs short because I started feeling sick towards the end. Finally, I got my 28 in and I was happy. For those of you who don’t know, I had to take a month off this summer due to an ankle injury (suffered while walking through a parking lot after lunch!). So, I’m working my way back into shape. My biggest run of the week is always my long run. It helps me with the endurance I need and it’s the one I enjoy the most. It felt nice to finally accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.
Cleveland Anybody?
I know I’ve been talking about different things going on with various races, so today I’m going to talk about Cleveland. They have a great charity program and I’m really hoping to build a good team there for the weekend of May 15 and 16 next year. There’s a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and full marathon. The 5K is the day before the other three races. I’m pretty sure I’ll run the 5K and I know I’m running the marathon. I’m really hopeful and optimistic about building a team of 25 people there. If you’re in that area, let me know — I’d love to talk to you about increasing participation. Remember, no fund-raising minimums!
That’s All For Today!
Have a great Tuesday! Eat some tacos! See you tomorrow!