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Doubt

Posted in boston marathon, motivation, tagged Boston, doubt, marathon, motivation, running on April 9, 2010| 18 Comments »

10 days.

10 days ’til Boston – and doubt has started to creep in.

I have to remind myself that I have finished a marathon. It wasn’t pretty, but I did. The thing is, it’s not the finishing that has become the constant occupier of my thoughts. It is the how. I have no doubt that I can finish. I have no doubt that I can finish in under 4 hours. At this point, especially after my performance at the Eastern States 20, I have no doubt I can finish in 3:45.

But from that point, things get a little hazy. 3:30 is about where I think I know I can come in, but I want to prove to the running gods that I deserve this gift they’ve bestowed upon me. Part of me feel like if I don’t run at least a 3:20, then I will be offending them…disappointing them.

I keep wondering what will happen at 16. I know that Heartbreak Hill isn’t for another 5 miles, but that famed hill is not a mystery to me. I’ve run it many times. It will be hard – yes, harder than any time I’ve run it before – but I will know what to expect and for how long I will be running it. It’s 16, where I seem to hit these “soft walls” that has me worried.

It doesn’t help that my buddy Pete seemed to have an issue with 16 in his first few marathons before he finally broke through with a great run at Disney this year. What is it with 16? It was the beginning of the end at Manchester and it shook my confidence briefly at Eastern States.

Doubt. It’s an evil thing.

But it can also be a motivator. It can be what keeps you mentally prepared and ready for that “moment”. In every race, half marathon or longer, I’ve had a moment where my race could have gone one of two ways – when doubt about my ability to not only finish but finish strong grabbed me by the throat and tried to end my race. In one race, it almost broke me. In the other three I dug deep, faced doubt down and broke through with a smile on my face. Doubt can destroy you, but it can also drive you.

The key so far for me has been to use it as a motivator and then draw on the strength of those around me. At the Boston Run to Remember, I drew on the energy from the crowd. At the Chilly Half and at Eastern States, it was from my fellow runners. I have been told by my good friend Rick, a veteran of 22 Boston Marathons and a mentor of sorts, that the crowd at Boston will pull you through. I plan on using them as much as I can. According to Rick, you can hear the cheers at Wellesley College nearly two miles before you reach the college. He says you can feel the fans on the Newton Hills willing you on. He says as you come into Boston, the roar of the crowd can carry you home.

These are the tools that I will use to push doubt out of my mind while I run hard through the second half of Boston.

In the meantime, I will use my doubts as motivators to train smart, eat right, sleep well and take care of my legs.

10 days.

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Manchester Revisited

Posted in motivation, race recap, tagged guest blog, Manchester City Marathon, running on April 2, 2010| 3 Comments »

In less than 10 days, Inspiration Jenn will be running her first marathon (St. Louis). A couple of weeks ago she sent out a call asking for first-time marathon stories, which she would post one by one over the course of her taper. I was more than happy to oblige. This is the post I wish I had written 5 months ago. You can find it –> here <—

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Reform

Posted in health, motivation, tagged HCR, health care reform, running on March 25, 2010| 15 Comments »

Let me start by saying that I am a member of the Left side of the aisle. When I turned 18, I went to my grandmother for advice on which party to register under. She paused and looked at me with a very thoughtful look and said, “You are going to go home tonight and think very carefully about what matters to you, and then tomorrow morning you are going to register yourself as a democrat.” That was it, and it has been that way ever since. I do have beliefs that lean Right, but for the most part I have been, and still am, a member of the Left.

That said, this whole Health Care Reform debate is driving me nuts. Not simply because of the knee jerk reactions of the right (which inevitably lead to equally strong knee jerk reactions from the left), but because it doesn’t have to be this way. And, no, I don’t mean that politics don’t have to be nasty and mean (although that is true too). The way I see it, if we managed to get ourselves healthy as a nation, we wouldn’t have to pay so much into the system and this whole debate would be rendered somewhat moot. We are a country that has grown somewhat fat and for lack of a better word, lazy.

The MTV generation and those that followed have come to expect immediate gratification. That means if “being in great shape” doesn’t come after one hard workout and one healthful meal, they give it up and go back to the high fructose corn syrup and processed meats. The statistics are out there. Yes, the actual numbers vary from study to study, but there’s no arguing that as a people, we have gained weight (not just physically either, but that’s a topic for another post). Use the eyeball test.

Who’s to blame?

Restaurants serve over-sized portions and because of that, I believe we have started to do the same at home. The Cheesecake Factory’s of the world are partially to blame, but so are we. If we didn’t eat it all up, they wouldn’t serve it to us. How about the food industry itself, with its low-fat this and no-fat that? Diet soda is not the answer. In fact, it has been shown to be part of the problem. We’ve also seen a de-emphasis on physical education in this country over the last 30 years or so. I seem to remember as a kid participating in PE more than just twice a week. But by the time I got to college, the only physical activity I was participating was either playing beer pong in the fraternity basement (the original beer pong, not that watered down paddle-less crap the kids are playing today) or in the back of the bus on the way to a sorority formal. I also remember seeing the news clips of Japanese company men starting their day, every day, with calisthenics. Why aren’t we doing the same here? Post-college I worked in a law firm where we were required to arrive early, leave late and there was no concern for our physical well-being. I understand that getting to the business of the day is important, but imagine what a company could save on health care and sick day costs if their workforce was required to exercise on a daily basis. The national mentality needs to change.

I hear the Right complain that they’re paying for the medical procedures of their deadbeat neighbors. I hear the Left cry about the poor, unfortunate folks without health benefits. I’ll admit here that I lean left on this one. I believe that no one should be denied medical attention if they need it, whether they can afford it or not, but I also believe that because of the shape we are in, we are incurring unnecessary costs that get spread to the community at large.

Bottom line is that whether you are on the Left or the Right or drinking Tea, this health care issue can be solved for most of us with two things – your left foot and your right foot.

If you love this country, be a patriot and start running. Make the insurance companies lower their premiums because we are all healthy and don’t need them as much. Get your neighbor to start walking. If you’re still sitting on the couch, munching on that bag of processed foodstuff, ask yourself if you want your son or daughter to NOT have you there at their wedding? or at the birth of their child? or if you’d like to see your child see their child’s wedding?

You set the example for them whether you like it or not.

Like it. Embrace it. Show them how it’s done. If you don’t have kids, do it for your friends, siblings, partner or parents.

It’s even more fun when you do it together. If you don’t know how, don’t be afraid to ask a runner to run with you. 9 times out of 10, they will gladly, no, enthusiastically go at whatever pace you can for as long as you want to go. That is the awesomeness of runners (most of us, anyway…and yes, I did say awesomeness). We don’t care what level you’re at, just as long as you want to do it. My natural pace seems to fall in the 7:45 – 8:30/mile range for runs up to about 18 miles, but I will gladly, GLADLY run at a 16:00 – 20:00/mile pace for as long as it takes if it means any of you want to come along. And believe me, I don’t care if it’s 1 mile, 10 miles or anything in between. We runners just want to spread the word.

Now I am not so naive as to think that getting everybody running in 2010 will solve all of our problems. Bureaucracy is a slow-moving ship. However, the long-term effects of a healthy population can only help to alleviate the burdensome costs of health care. If we don’t need to treat the various diseases associated with obesity, alcoholism and smoking, then we don’t need to be paying for them either.

You want reform? How about we truly tackle health care and reform our thinking as a nation – exercise is something everybody can do, no, should do. Businesses should encourage their employees to get fit by providing an hour a day dedicated solely to exercise. Schools should go back to the days when we let our kids run and play and run some more. I am a self-proclaimed nerd and a firm believer in book education, but what’s the point of all that learning if we drop dead at 50 because our bodies give out?

Believe me, we can lick this Health Care issue simply by getting healthy. Don’t we (and our wallets) deserve that?

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Inspiration

Posted in motivation, tagged excuses, Inspiration, running on March 22, 2010| 4 Comments »

“I can’t believe just a year ago I couldn’t run a mile. And I certainly had no clue what the hell gu and sports beans were.”
-Tweet by Jenn_If_Er

I read this tweet by my friend Jenn on Saturday and I was inspired. A year ago she couldn’t run a mile. A little over a week ago she ran the Dallas Rock N Roll Half Marathon, and despite a nagging hamstring, she finished strong. She and a few friends decided to get a little nutty and wore tutu’s for the race.

That's Jenn second from the right

This past Saturday, she ran a 10K in her hometown and won her age division. This is a woman who couldn’t run a mile a year ago.

I have not always been a runner, but I have always been able to run. If a friend randomly asked me to go for a jog, I could hang for 3 miles, maybe even 4 or 5 if I had to. I didn’t like it, but I could do it.

Jenn couldn’t run a mile a year ago. This last weekend she won her division in a 10K race.

I am inspired to work harder, get better and most importantly continue to enjoy this obsession we call running.

Jenn – You are Inspiration.

You can fine Jenn at www.jenn-journey.blogspot.com

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Swoosh

Posted in boston marathon, motivation, training, tagged commit, Just do it, running on March 18, 2010| 12 Comments »

Just do it.

That’s the phrase that has made Nike millions of dollars, and though I am not a particular fan of their products, I am a believer in the phrase.

Just do it.

I hear the complaints, the excuses, the reasoning. I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve done that.

The first five pounds? The middle five pounds? The last five pounds? 13.1 miles? 26.2 miles? They’re not as hard to tackle as many think. The biggest, highest hurdle is between the ears.

In the end, it comes down to one question: How badly do you want it?*

Yes, there are certain achievements I will never accomplish in running, no matter how badly I want them. I will not win a gold medal at the Olympics; I will not win Boston (not on this world anyway); and I will not become the pitchman for Brooks or Vibrams (probably).

However, there are running achievemenst, currently out of reach that I will someday accomplish.

I WILL qualify for Boston. I will run a half marathon with a 1:30 handle. I will run an ultra someday. I will push my body…hard. It’s a matter of commitment. I truly believe that. I HAVE to believe that. THAT is partly what gets me on the street or treadmill.

Those things that you believe are out of reach? You’re not in shape for? You’re not built for? Bullshit! You can.

You can.

Commit.

Just do it.

It’s your body. If you want it, commit and just do it. Once you do, the goal is yours.

How badly do you want it?

*And there’s nothing wrong with not wanting it…it’s not for everyone. But don’t complain about it if you don’t want to do something about it. It’s like complaining about who won your local election when you couldn’t care enough to vote.

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Another Reason to Hate Your Treadmill

Posted in health, motivation, tagged going soft, running, treadmill, winter running on March 15, 2010| 6 Comments »

Soft.

Over the last 2 1/2 months I’ve put close to 300 miles in on the treadmill and because of that I am getting soft. The treadmill has made me a weaker runner this winter. The steel and iron have given way to fluff and dough. I no longer can honestly look in the mirror and see that hardened runner that looked back at me last fall. Running on the treadmill over the winter has taken that all away.

What’s that? How is it that I’ve managed to run close to 600 miles in 4 months and gone soft? How has my body responded in such an unexpected way?

…Oh, did you just ask about my body?

That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about my will.

Yes, it is not my body that has turned to fluff and dough – it is my will. And if I’m going to be completely honest, will is probably the wrong word. When I get into a race I will buckle down and fight. I will push my body as hard as it will go. I will walk away from a race knowing I ran hard. So it’s not that part of my will that has gone soft.

I’m having some trouble putting my finger on it. For the last few days, the weather here in Boston has been miserable – cold, wet and rainy. In fact, I don’t know if it has stopped raining since Friday. It didn’t really bother me on Friday. I was still high from my Thursday Lunch Half Marathon. But on Saturday I really started to get an itch to run. You runners know the feeling – the legs get restless, the horses want to be let out of the barn. I looked out my window and saw some kid running by. Normally, my first thought would be, Oh man! I wish I were that kid right now! But no. You wanna know what my first thought was? It was, Jesus that kid is nuts! It’s 32°, windy and raining cats and dogs out there!

I jumped back from the window.

What the frak was that? I asked myself. But it was true. It was 32°, windy and raining cats and dogs. It looked miserable. I was so confused. My legs and body wanted to run, but my brain was telling me, Not out there buddy. I did end up putting in 10 miles – in the comfort of my basement, on the treadmill, while watching 2 old episodes of Star Trek (yeah, I’m not afraid to admit it – I’m a total sci-fi geek). I broke a sweat, my legs were happy – as was the rest of me in the pleasant 68°.

I told myself not to worry too much about my earlier reaction and in fact told a friend that I might run 7 1/2 miles on Sunday to her first 5K to root her on and then run home. I knew it wasn’t going to be warm, but what the heck, it’d be an easy way to get 15 – 18 miles in with a nice little break in the middle. She mentioned that it looked like it was going to rain but I shrugged it off. I shrugged it off, that is, until I got up the next morning and realized that in was only in the high 30’s and the rain was even stronger than the day before. I wished her well on Facebook.

As the rainy day progressed, I found myself on dailymile and twitter, cheering on friends like Michelle and Pigtailsflying for the rain soaked long runs they were taking. I’ll be joining you guys soon I would write, silently adding in my head in my basement, on my treadmill, in front of the TV, where it’s dry and 68°.

The final straw came last night as I was picking up pizza for the family for dinner. Both on the way to and from the pizza place I saw runners – true, hardcore runners – out there, putting in their miles. They were braving the cold wind and rain while I sat in the comfort of my car. I caught myself thinking, Man, those are some crazy runners!

And that’s when I realized that my treadmill had made me soft.

There was a time when I would have laughed at the weather and then run like it wasn’t there. That time is no more. Maybe I’ve gotten old. Maybe I’ve become wiser. But there is part of me that is very much afraid that perhaps, just perhaps, I’ve become soft.

I will run in the rain again.

I love running in the rain.

Just when it’s about 35° warmer.

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Band of Runners

Posted in motivation, other, tagged Band of Runners, runners, running, Thank you on March 8, 2010| 11 Comments »

Next week on HBO, the new series Band of Runners

Let me preface this by saying that I am a lover not a fighter. 10 years of kung-fu (3 spent as a youth instructor) under my belt and I still prefer to end confrontations with my words and not my fists. I’m not going down without taking one or two bodies with me, but let’s face it, I would never survive in a war zone. The soldiers I know, directly like Uncle Paul and Brandon, or through friends, like Jeremy, are the true warriors. They have the true Band of Brothers.

That said, the recent response to my Sanity post got me thinking. I had written it while slowly emerging from a place that had me down. The post itself was about using running to mentally pick oneself up by the bootstraps and get going. 4 days later, I still believe that all to be true – running is something of a miracle drug to me, but I am compelled to add something. This running community that I am a part of through Daily Mile and Twitter, has also had an immense impact on how well I feel going through the day. The words of encouragement and hope are energizing and uplifting. But it’s not just them. It’s all the runners out there that are pounding out the miles.

Whether I see you outside my window running by before dawn or from the car as I drive around town taking care of the groceries and dry cleaning, I see you, I am encouraged by you and I am thankful.

For those of my friends who are still unsure about these social networks, I would direct you to my friend Kathy over at RTR. Kathy put it in terms that explain without preaching. Simply put, Daily Mile is Facebook for runners, bikers, swimmers, and athletes, but I use all of those terms loosely. We are a group that range in skill from the very competitive to the “let’s just put down the pint and get my butt off the couch, shall we?”. We’re all just looking for a connection through our chosen athletic endeavor and a bit of encouragement.

My point…

Essentially, I want to thank you, my fellow runners, for your support in recent weeks…directly or indirectly, knowingly and unknowingly you have all lifted my spirits and helped my feet fly.

You are my Band of Runners, and to you I am grateful.

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The Anchor

Posted in motivation, tagged anchor, motivation, running, why I run on February 25, 2010| 11 Comments »

Why do I run. Question or statement?

I’m not sure.

Why don’t I NOT run? I know. Awful grammar, but I think it might be the more appropriate question.

Why don’t I not run…

Because when I don’t run, I physically feel like crap.

Because when I don’t run, my mood turns dark.

Because when I don’t run, I feel gravity dragging me down.

Because when I don’t run, I feel less productive, less motivated, and less connected with myself.

It didn’t begin this way. For almost 39 years, I merely flirted with running. I ran a little track (110 high hurdles/330 IM hurdles) and cross-country (3 miles) in high school, but even then I didn’t really like it. I liked that I was competitive in my small pond in the 330’s but that was about it (I ran the 330’s because I didn’t have the endurance to run the quarter mile nor the speed to run the 220). When I got to college I hung up the cleats and rarely looked back. I would go out for an occasional run of 2 or 3 miles, suffer the leg pain for the next few days and then throw the running shoes into the closet until I had forgotten the aches. There was no consistency. I was consistently inconsistent.

After college my running became even more sporadic. I ended up teaching at a small ski academy in Maine (actually had a few future Olympians as students), and began power lifting with some members of the alpine ski team. The weight piled on. I had gone from 160 lbs in high school to 190 in college to a whopping 220 as a young adult (the scary part is that the last 30 lbs were between my chest, arms and neck). After teaching for three years I took a job in a New York City law firm and began working 80 – 100 hour weeks. Running went from sporadic to almost non-existent. I would work out when I could, but rapidly all of the muscle I had put on power lifting with the skiers went soft.

***

Flash forward 15 years and I’m married with 2 kids.

Leading up to this time I preached exercise but seldom practiced it. My wife and I had been dealing for sometime with our younger daughter’s diagnosis of autism; each in different ways. Despite putting on a good front, I was adrift and lost. My wife on the other hand had found focus in her blog – a diary of a mom. It was (and still is) an outlet for her and, in many ways, helped her find some sense of peace and purpose. It turned out she was good at writing and connected with people not just in the Autism community, but beyond. She gained an audience. She not only was helping herself, but she was now helping others as well.

I continued to drift, lost in a sea of uncertainty and doubt. Yes, I was the at home parent, taking care of my children during the day. It was and is the most difficult “job” I have ever had. That said, I was disconnected from adults and foolishly worried about how I would be remembered. True, my purpose was my children, but that is the case with any good parent whether they work or not. My focus began to unravel. That was until my blogging wife wrote this: Eye of the Tiger.

Go ahead. Go read it. I’ll wait.

***

So, if you continued to the comments section of her post, you saw that I jumped right in there with her (if you didn’t read it, the short version is that she declared that she had signed up for the 2009 Hyannis Half-Marathon). Truth be told, it wasn’t just the distance that worried me. After I read it, I called the wife and asked her if she realized that Hyannis in February was probably a little on the cold and windy side. She didn’t budge. She was determined. I remember feeling that I couldn’t let her do it alone. As independent as the wife is, I wasn’t going to let her fly this mission solo.

So I told her if she was going to do it, then dammit, I was going to support her all the way. The very next day I dusted off the treadmill in our basement and got to work.

3 miles. 30 minutes.

OH CRAP! THAT HURT!!!

That was Friday, October 24th, 2008. I gave myself the weekend to recover and promised myself 3 days of running the following week.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday. 3 miles. 30 minutes.

By Friday the lungs didn’t burn so much. The following week I did the same. I thought one more week of this and I should be able to bump it up a little.

But a funny thing happened that Wednesday, November 12th. The night before had been poker night. Occasionally one of the members of our poker group will bring a nice bottle of tequila. The night of the 11th happened to be one of those nights. Several shots, several beers and way too much junk food later, I woke up with an awful, AWFUL hangover. I managed to get the kids to school on time and went about my day.

I looked at treadmill after drop off and walked away. After a morning of errands I again looked at the treadmill, but my pounding head told me to walk away. Finally, after lunch I forced myself, my headache and my now sour stomach down to the basement for a run.

I wasn’t letting Jess do this alone!

When I hit 3 miles I wasn’t paying attention. I looked down to see that I was at about 3.25 miles.

Hmmm. I wonder if I can do 4?

I hit 4.

If I keep going I might be able to do 5.

I hit 5.

Maybe I should see if I can do 6…

I hit 6.

Wow! If I keep going I could hit…I looked at my watch.Dammit! Gotta pick up the kids! I don’t know how far I could have gone, but I…felt…GREAT!!!

The next day I did another 6. The following day the same. I very quickly (and foolishly) started cranking out the miles to see just how far I could go on the treadmill. I started doing 8 and 10 miles runs on the treadmill like it was nothing, occasionally sprinkling in a 12 miler. I went from almost no miles in October to 110 in November to 130 in December.

I was hooked.

I felt good.

I rapidly dropped 20 lbs and nearly 4 inches off my waist. I secretly began thinking about running a marathon – about qualifying for Boston.

Running helped bring the rest of my life back into focus. Whether it was the endorphins or just the almost daily breaking of a sweat, I felt like there was balance back in my life. I was able to take the nervous energy that was distracting and tiresome and harness it in a way that gave me more productive energy on a daily basis. I didn’t want to go back.

I finally found that I wasn’t drifting anymore.

That is why I don’t not run. And just like any other physical activities, if you don’t just do it, you lose the motivation to keep doing it. I refuse to let that happen.

Is it ironic that I stopped feeling like I was running in place by hopping on a treadmill and literally running in place? Ultimately there are many, many reasons why I run or don’t not run. Several of those reasons are intertwined with each other, but finding a touchstone, an anchor if you will, was a big one. Running has become one of my anchors.

Why do you or don’t you run?

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Exploring Captiva

Posted in motivation, training, tagged Captiva, exploring, running, vacation on February 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

The nice thing about running is that you can take it almost anywhere. All you need are some shorts, a shirt (sometimes) and some shoes (if you run with them). Okay, if you’re a woman you may need a sports bra too, but I digress. You can run in the sun, the rain or even through snow, and if the weather is simply unbearable you can hit the treadmill or do what the great Emil Zàtopek used to do. He would fill his tub with blankets and run in place for hours. The point is no matter where you are, if you have the time and are physically able, there is very little excuse for not running.

This past week my family and I spent our children’s school vacation on the island of Captiva, Florida. The weather did not exactly cooperate. The historical temperature for this past week has been in the mid-70’s. The past 7 days saw a high of 67° and averaged much closer 62°. Not exactly your “lounge by the pool/let’s jump in the ocean” type of weather. However, it was perfect for running.

Lucky for me, I am a runner! One of the things I love most about running is that you never have to take the same route twice if you don’t want to. From day one of our vacation, I looked forward to being able to explore the island of Captiva. I figured that over the course of a week, I would get to check out quite a bit of the island. The last time we were here (close to 3 years ago) I went out for a jog (I was not a runner then) and barely got out of the complex we were staying in. The resort is about 1.8 miles from end to end and that was about what I could run at the time. 3.6 and I was done. It was not the distance that made me a jogger, rather the frequency with which I ran (which was once in a while at best).

This time around I arrived as a runner. The idea of running 8, 10, 12 miles was not out of the question. Nor was running 4 or 5 of the 6 days we were there. I was going to explore every nook and cranny of Captiva. I was going to take every side street and loop and see everything there was to see. There was only one problem: after my first run of 8 miles, I had essentially seen the whole island outside of the resort. In fact, that particular run even took me to the neighboring island of Sanibel. The 10 miles the next day covered everything I had missed. Part of the issue is that the island is only a few hundred feet wide in some spots and not much wider in others. There is essentially one road that runs north and south with few side streets open to the public.

Despite that, it is a beautiful place to run and reminded me that running is not always about “per mile splits” and training. Sometimes running should just be about exploring and observing your world. Running up and down that 6 mile strip over the course of the week, I noticed different things with every run.

One day it was some of the over the top houses,

Is there enough room for your whole family dude? The owner's son built the same house 1/4 mile down the road

another day it was the beautiful surf

Notice nobody's in the ocean. Was a cool 62ºF.

Notice nobody was in the ocean? It was a cool 62ºF.

and yet another I got to see some majestic ospreys putting together a nest.

I guess my point is that when training for a marathon, half, 10k or what have you, it is easy to get lost in the numbers. Yes, you want to strive to hit the marks in your training to achieve your goal, and don’t get me wrong, I derive great pleasure from those training runs and hitting those marks. But it has been a joy this past week just running for the sake of running.

Feeling the ground, slicing the wind, seeing the sights.

Final stats:
Days Run – 4/6
Miles Run – 31.36

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Running with my Stomach

Posted in motivation, training, tagged focus, running on February 15, 2010| 5 Comments »

I was in the last few miles of a hard 8 mile run a couple of days ago when I felt my pace slipping and my form failing. I had just fought through a mile of heavy headwind, followed by a protected stretch, but I was now entering a spot where the wind was going to be the strongest. I had been clipping along at about a 6:50 pace and I was tired. As I came around the turn, the wind hit me like a right cross from a heavyweight boxer.

Oh, man! I thought, this is not good.

I tried leaning into the wind. I was not going to let this wind kill my run.

It wasn’t working.

I could feel myself slowing down. The harder I tried, the sloppier I got.

C’mon! I yelled out loud. No Fear, Dammit!!!

It was all coming apart when I remembered something I had read in Chi Running. I don’t have the book with me so I can’t give you the exact quote or even the context in which I read it, however, I can tell you that I remembered something about leading with your stomach. Let you abs lead your body and your legs will follow. Something like that, anyway.

So I changed my focus. I stopped thinking about my form, I stopped thinking about my legs, I stopped thinking about my burning lungs. Instead I began to focus on my abs. I don’t want to say that I tightened my abs, but by focusing on them I felt like I was engaging them. As soon as I did that, the movement of my legs became effortless – literally. I’m not exaggerating. For about a half a mile, by focusing on my abs, I was able to run without physical effort. What’s more, my pace picked back up. After running the first half of mile 7 in 3:50, I came back with a 3:30 second half. I was only able to do this for a little over a half mile. Physically I felt great, but mentally I just could not keep the focus going. That half mile break from physical effort however allowed me to find my reserves. I closed the run with a 6:38 final mile.

So the task over the next few months is to train myself mentally as well as physically. If I can learn to stay mentally focused for three hours, Boston should be easily achieved. Of course, I had a hard enough time doing it for 3 1/2 minutes, but hey! what’s another 176 1/2 minutes, right?