Me and John, (or John and Me, or John and I, whichever)

I'm taking off in about an hour or so do the last run of the Horsetooth Half course before the race next weekend. I'll start by saying on last nights last 3 mile run, I tweaked my right hamstring, bad enough that it does have me concerned, but after some time in the therapy pool and use of my Stick, it feels good enough that I'm still going to make the run without too much thought. I was thinking this morning though, with the exception of the half next Sunday, this will be my last real big workout and the marathon is still about a month away. After todays 13.1, I do 5 tomorrow and 10 on Sunday. Next week I will run, but will mostly be like a weeklong taper to rest me for the half. Coming out of the half I do have a big mileage week the following week, but nothing that will be too fast and too intense. It comes to an end with a 22 mile run that Sunday. But that one will be like my last one before PHX in the sense that I will run the first 5 miles at the pace I plan to run the first 5 of the marathon at, to get the feel of pacing myself out, then it will be very easy. I might take a camera and photo some landmarks around town. Lucky for me, in 22 miles I can pretty much see all of the meca that is Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Anyways, I plan to run this morning with John Bender. John is a customer in the auto shop that I work in. One day a little over a year ago, while he was in getting his car worked on, we struck up a conversation. It turned to running because he is a marathoner and I was finding my was as a runner then as well. We didn't really talk too much after that for a while, but at the start of the Horestooth Half last year, we saw each other and talked as the race got started. Then little by little, each time he would come into where I work, we would talk running more and more. I would listen to him, try to pick up little pieces of advice as I could. He has always been very complimentary of me and has great faith in my abilities. He was key to my success in Phx, and the oppritunity to run with him today is a huge deal for me. I'm really looking forward to todays run. We both are running the Horsetooth Half this year again. He is really working his ass of because he is running the San Francisco Marathon this summer, and in his 50's he's looking for one more BQ to try and run there in 09. Hopefully we'll get a chance to race together there too.

Have a great day everyone. Nothing but love...