Marathon Post 1: 118 days

I've decided it's time for me to run a marathon. After all, why not? I've survived training for and running an off-road half marathon a couple of times, and I'm not really dealing with any major injuries at the moment.

My chosen event, most likely, will be the Grand Rapids Marathon on Sunday, October 18th. It's relatively small, as these things go, and Grand Rapids is not too far from here. The Detroit Marathon is the same day, and would be another option.

A typical marathon training schedule is about 16 to 18 weeks, which means it's time to start now. I set up a training plan and gave it a start last weekend. I'm trying to start gently, and my training plan is loose for the first couple of weeks while I ease into it.

I said I didn't have any major injuries, but I'm still nursing some minor soreness, probably tendinitis, that started during my training for the half marathon in April this year. It's in my upper thigh or groin area, it's hard to pinpoint the exact location, so I'm trying to be diligent about stretching during and after my runs, and not pushing too hard.

After the half marathon at the end of April this year I took a full week off, and then ran easy for the next two or three weeks. Somewhere in there I got a nasty cold, and didn't run for another couple of weeks. So I'm coming off a month or so of sporadic running.

I thought it would be fun to record some numbers at the beginning of this to see if anything changes over the next 18 weeks. Over the winter I'd been up to 155 pounds, and had maintained that weight through the half marathon in April. I've been dropping a little, and right now my weight is averaging about 152 pounds. If the training goes as expected, I'd like to be at about 145 or so in October. I'll look a bit sickly at that weight, but I'll be fast!

Also, as another performance marker, I ran 5 miles on Thursday as quickly as I could. My time was 36 minutes, 36 seconds. That's about 7:19 min/mile pace, and is not not really where I'd like to be. A year ago, on the day of the 2008 Superbowl, I ran a 5k race at just slower than my PR, and my pace was 6:19.

Finally, I'm setting myself a tentative goal of running at a Boston Qualifying pace. To qualify to run in the Boston Marathon, you have to run a different marathon within an age- and gender-specific pace. I have no intention of running in Boston even if I could qualify, but it's just a goal to see if I could do it. And it's tentative because I don't really know if it's even within the realm of possibility. In the 40 to 44 age class, I'd have to finish in 3 hours 20 minutes. That's a 7:38 pace for 26.2 miles. It seemed like a good idea to go for it, but I'm a little doubtful; if I can't do it, I'll know long before the marathon, but it's no big deal either. I'll be satisfied if I simply survive the 26.2 miles.

It will be fun, hopefully not too disappointing, to come back and read this 118 days from now.