The April Fool

So way back near the end of March, I decided that I better get my ass in gear and get signed up for the Colorado Marathon before the registration closes. Everything was going well, I seemed healthy, then the day I signed up finally, I felt a little tweaky from my left inner groin area. The upper part of my IT band was hassling me, and suddenly I went from marathon training to just trying to get miles.



For this training session my miles per week were as follows



Week 1: 28.1 I ran a New Years Eve 5k and then partied my ass off on NYD

Week 2: 43.7

Week 3: 36.9

Week 4: 63.1

Week 5: 60.0

Week 6: 40.1

Week 7: 70.1

Week 8: 48.2

Week 9: 51.8

Week 10: 53.9

Week 11: 47.4

Week 12: 25.6

Week 13: 5.0

Week 14: 25.1

Week 15: 26.3

Week 16: 9.3

Week 17: 29.2

Week 18: 13.8 so far, with another 10 or so to come.



Almost 680 miles to prepare. Less than 40 mpw average. The last 6 weeks were a wreck. I'm still a little off, but the race must go on.

Last week I made a life changing decision, one that will change my life forever. Good or bad, the jury is still out on that. The last couple years have been a real struggle for me. A lot of things have gone on in my life that I don't fo into on here, mostly because I feel there are some things that aren't to be shared. I know people think drugs or alcohol when they read something like that, but I assure you it's not. I dedicated a lot of my time and effort into something that turned our to be a dead end. To put that much time and effort into something and know that it was all for nothing, that all your pain, sweat, and tears were givin in vain is a hard thing to do. But sometimes a person has to realize that the only way to find happiness is to endure pain first, and I have for almost 2 years. I've decided that I need to be true to myself, and that's what I'm doing.

When I quit on Chicago after my IT issue last year, I was drained, worn out, had no fight left in me. I wanted to back out of Colorado this year, but after spending my day Sunday in the bottom of a bottomless bottle of beer, I went and ran on Monday, and part way through that run, I decided that for my heart and soul, I needed to do this. After all these months and all these miles, I can leave this baggage somewhere on the course, and return to the road I was on years ago, the one to happiness, to successful running, to the rest of my life. Belief in others is foolish, you can only count on yourself. I used to believe in this saying, but thought for a little while that maybe you just needed to find the right person to believe in. I was wrong.

Expect to see a 4 hour marathon or so. There is no tracking, but am making arrangements with a couple of people from runnersworld.com that I will give at least an update or two on the course, since some walking will be upcoming for sure, and my fuel belt has a spot for my blackberry.

I expect this to be my last entry before the race. I know some people might think it foolish to do this, but remember, they're just miles.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend. Especially Steve, because as long as I finish, my 3rd marathon was better than yours, I'll figure out how to run that 2:58 in Steamboat, like you did in Philly, after Sunday :p