And then I ran twice as long

You GUYS. This was Much Better.

After Thursday's improved run status (as in: status being I can actually run), I crosstrained carefully but not wimpily yesterday and then there was a sort of plan to go to Sleepy Hollow State Park (yes, actually called that, how is that ok?) on Sunday with a local friend, with whom I will be running the Capital City Half Marathon in two weeks (oh yeah forgot about that a little bit?)

Anyway, this morning when I was very expertly getting zero work done and yawning like a lunatic, she texted me asking were we really doing this and when... and I remembered it's supposed to be really much hotter tomorrow, and she couldn't do Monday... and somehow suddenly it was on for today.

The upshot was something like 8.5~9 miles, at between 10 and 10:30 minute miles (our Garmin technique leaves a little to be desired) and considering the humidity and the trailness (and the bit about how I maybe wasn't running at all a week ago) this feels like a distinct win. WIN!

We ran around a lake, and apart from the weird bit where the path takes you almost up to the interstate, halfway up a culvert, and then back around 180 degrees into the woods again (obviously the product of some trail planner's typo and quick fix: "oh, wait, they can't cross the interstate... uh, let's just have them do a ... er, loop... look, it'll be character building...") it was quite nice. Lots of shade, lots of open fields as well, far too many bugs but only one of them flew into my mouth (although that one was a complete bastard, as I felt its crunchy exoskeletal body honest-to-god *smack* into my front teeth, jesus, bug!), nice little lake though mysteriously lacking in water fountain (wtf), one random guy with a horse and buggy, and mostly just us trucking along on single or dual track. Somehow the entire run was slightly uphill; let's not think too hard about whether that's possible (we did a loop.) There was some sun and some wind and waaaaaay too much humidity, but lots of soft dirt for tired legs.

... and yes, my leg? The back of my left leg felt about the same the whole time, and better than Thursday I think. We stopped a few times and I massaged it like before, and I made sure to take small strides and never even get close to running hard (see slow but steady pace.) And though when we came back from our dog walk a couple hours later I felt a little hmmmph on that side, I really think it's going to be ok, if I'm smart and stay cautious.

I realize 9 miles doesn't sound like caution to everyone.
But when we finished, I could definitely, definitely have done more.

The training schedule which I am possibly dumping as per last post said to run 18 miles today. Well, I did half that.

So then this week? ... I will run carefully. Swimming for crosstraining. Bunch of strength stuff. Lots of foam rolling. And then next weekend there are some bigger plans. Well: some idea to get back on the distance plan (perhaps slightly easing into it by running in the morning and the evening of the same day.) ... But one day at a time, right? Right. Right, right. I will keep telling myself that.

P.S. Remember when I said 7 weeks to go last week? No, that was wrong. I am apparently incapable of understanding when October 20th is. But NOW, now there are 7 weeks to go.

And then I went for a run

Last time I promised an update on my first attempt at running, a week after the Terrible Horrible No Good Really Bad Race DNF of last Thursday.

... That day is today.

You will notice I am not bawling or screaming obscenities at you. That you should interpret as a good sign.
However, neither am I screaming obscenities of joy. So, don't get too pumped (I saw you starting to get a little pumped there.)

This morning I woke up and thought: today I'm going to go for a run. Ok? Nevermind that I was crying on the couch last night about not being able to run and random pain I didn't understand. For days now I've been having weird phantom moving target cranky leg wtf pain, in all sorts of weirdo left leg places. Am I just making them UP? It's a little like an itch, you know, that you scratch in one place and it moves to another. Clearly something is still off in the back of my left leg region. But where exactly? What? Does it want ice or heat? Does it want stretching or rolling or massaging or resting. WHAT DOES IT WANT FROM ME??? I WILL DO IT IF I KNOW WHAT IT IS!!!!

Ok, wait, I said no yelling.
And as I said, there's no need for yelling.

So, I ate and coffeed, and did a couple errands that involved moving around and walking a bit, because I know the body does NOT like the running first thing, and then I drank some water and got dressed and strapped on my phone in case of crisis and set out. The man of the house looked a little surprised/concerned that I was going for a run but I said it would be short and slow. (Warning -- there is a sentence of lady business here:) I am also having my period, so in addition to the whatever weirdo leg pains, I had stupid uterus pain and back ache and general less-than-awesomesauce feelings.

Alright, where is the running bit??

Ok, so I went for a run. After .2 of a mile I was like: this is maybe a terrible idea. I have some beliefs about what aspects of my stride cause the back of left leg pain to occur, so I mostly tried to avoid them, but twice in that .2 mile I felt a something of something like pain. I stopped and massaged the places of pain, because I thought it would help. It did. And so I kept running.

I ran four miles. I was SO CAREFUL. I didn't let myself get further than a mile from the house, for fear of injury and pathetic limpy home walking. I never even put my headphones inm because I wanted to focus SO CAREFULLY on my form. I just used my Garmin to tell me how far I was going, beeping once a mile. I ran at a pace that I felt was super easy, which turned out to be completely consistently 9:30/min miles. If I tried to run faster, or lengthen my stride, my leg said no, so I didn't do those things. I stopped every mile to just massage out the back of my left leg, not because I needed to exactly but because it always felt even better after doing so. And in terms of tightess, discomfort, pain: my left leg felt considerably better after the run than before. When I got home I did the basic stretches; nothing twanged or anything.

I came back to my doorstep after 4 miles, because I was being SO CAREFUL (and I had to get to work) but I pretty much felt like I'd done next to no work (it was already stupid hot so I was sweaty and stuff but not dehydrated and my breathing was normal almost immediately.) I could certainly have kept running at that pace -- it felt like I could have done so for a long time. (Could I have done it 6.5 more times? We are not asking questions like that yet.)

Cautious optimism, is I guess the phrase of the day. Very cautious. Optimism. ... But how to proceed? I clearly cannot jump back into training according to the plan. For instance, the plan thinks I am running 18 miles this Sunday. CAUTIOUS! Not 18 miles.

I'm starting to think maybe I need to dump the plan entirely, and use the training method I have used for all my previous distance attempts (which were successful, btw.) This method goes like this: every second day or so, run. Once a week run long -- a little longer than last time you ran long. Once a week run difficult in some way -- that usually meant hills or speed, but for now anything other than long run pace seems unwise so maybe a trail run will be the idea. But overall, I may need to not actually *plan* to run a marathon, and just move along at my own pace. And if a week before the marathon I feel like I want to try it, fine. And if not, I will be well-prepared to run the half.

And now I am feeling fine. I think? When I'm actually doing the running, I know what kinds of pain can be ignored and which are important, and I pay immediate attention. But as I write this various parts of my legs feel weirdly tight in weird places. What's THAT about? ... Seriously, body, just make up your mind.

Meanwhile: upshot is that I ran four miles and nothing fell off. That's probably all I actually know for sure, but that would have been too short a post.

Tomorrow will be strength and core and stretching. Saturday will be crosstraining. Sunday I will run again.

Nobody do anything rash.

previous 'oh, god' tentatively retracted

kind of think things might not terrible. they still might, of course. but maybe not?

thursday was race-doom-pain-rage day.

friday at lunch i swam. didn't drown. could feel the back of my left leg had protests to make, but it wasn't painful. saturday i did a lot of pilates and core things and generally made a sweaty ass of myself on the back deck. sunday i hustled on the elliptical on an incline for 40 minutes (which is the point at which i lose my impatient mind on that machine, even though i was listening to the awesomest short stories) and then i swam again for 40 minutes. this morning, more yogilates type things with an emphasis on core and stretching. always with the stretching. and throughout, i have heated and stretched, and rolled and iced, as felt right.

every day i just do a little testing things out jog, really lightly. yesterday i felt no pain. today i felt ... eh, something just above no pain. anyway, i'm not running again till thursday. lots more careful exercise tomorrow and wednesday.

on thursday there will some kind of reckoning. there may be a blog post after that. THERE MAY BE SOME ALL CAPS.

gonna try to be calm. ha!

7 weeks to go.

oh, god.

so much for last night's speed work?

suffice it to say, at least for now, that i was running a 6k race, and i had taken a boat to get there and brought a dear friend and some sushi to cheer/eat (as appropriate) and 2.5k in my hamstring/back of knee area went TWING! POING! you're done! and i had to walk the 2.5k back to the start, and i now hate 1. the world 2. my legs 3. marathon training 4. toronto island.

i am taking a full week off running. will this scuttle my marathon plans? maybe. i'm going to swim and ellipticate and strength train (not the hamstrings!) a lot. we'll see.

as i said on facebook: don't pity me, i got that covered myself.

skipping straight to the whining

Alright, enough background and plan-talk. What is doing the crazymaking?

I think my marathon training problems boil down to two things.

1. I wanted to run too fast
2. I am not running as far on my long runs as I'm supposed to be running.

Let's say, for the sake of today's post, that I have fixed problem 1. The solution -- you're gonna be blown away -- is to not try to run so fast. If you're not good at complicated concepts, I'll put it differently -- you slow down. Or rather, you're more okay with the pace that you're running anyway. I'm really not that good at making my body run faster than it wants to run; I suppose I have more self-preservation instinct than, like, good runners do, and I'm pretty keen on keeping that, actually. Two times in the first four weeks of my training, I hurt myself in ways that I have never hurt before, and I'm quite confident I should put the blame on trying to run tempo runs faster than my, you know, tempo. So, no more of that nonsense. I took a break, I stretched/rolled/iced/heated as necessary, and I missed a couple runs, but very few, mostly by getting more realistic time goals. So, let's say I'm mostly on top of Problem Pace Monster.

The big other problem is the real mindfuck: Problem Distance Monster. There has been a little bit of schedule juggling in the last couple weeks, to handle the fact that my first 17 mile run was supposed to be on the day of a family wedding, two days ago. Um: HA. No. Not happening. So, long story short, I moved it to today.

Conditions were in some sense optimal. I got lots of sleep last night; I had BOTH my parents with or at least near me, riding up and down the same path but on their bicycles (yeah, I know, spoiled only child) for the first 8 miles, providing both distraction and water-bottle carrying; I had a fully charged Garmin and mostly-empty bike path for nearly all the run; I had a good week of hitting on my runs last week, and after Friday's decent 8 mile tempo, I did nothing Saturday and just did a light elliptical session and some core/pilates yesterday. (I'm on a bit of vacation at my parents this week, so this is why I can do 17 miles runs in the middle of the day! Or rather, why I could in principle do so.)

However, there are other ways in which conditions were kind of shit. When I say I did nothing on Saturday, of course I actually mean I went to my cousin's wedding -- BUT, no, before you point that out, I actually did considerably less drinking or dancing than I would normally contribute to a wedding festivity. Partly because I knew my parents would want to leave fairly early (as my father was heroically DDing) and partly because I needed my energies for Sunday... Because then Sunday, yesterday, we hosted a postwedding brunch/linner/all meals in one event that required a fair amount of cooking and hosting and moving furniture and standing and smiling and pouring and replenishing and then cleaning surprisingly large number of dishes... and so, right. That's kind of tiring, in the end, I guess? And I slow-drank the bubbly punch, very little, but maybe enough. And I of course ate a lot of carbs, over many hours, but again not your whole wheat pasta with sweet potato and arugula (or whatever Runners World says you should eat. Actually that now sounds really good, which is what post-run hunger is like.)

So, there was some exceptional fatigue in the previous couple of days. And then three other run-fails: I didn't realize how how it actually was. It's been way cool here for summer... but today it got up to 29C. And this running was taking place between 3:30-5:30, so hardly a cool part of the day. There was some sun. Also, I didn't have fuel. Um, what was I thinking? I guess I thought I only need food for half marathon distances when I'm actually racing? The idiocy here is not really understandable, although granted my first few half marathons I didn't eat on the course... but I DID drink gatorade, and you see now I'm drinking stuff that has electrolyte bla bla blas but not a lot of sugar. Which is cool if you want to take care of each separately. But uh -- that means actually doing both! I had forgotten to buy any swedish fish beforehand, so I somehow thought eh, it'll be fine. And, final nail in coffin: I didn't stay on top of my water needs. When I ran on Friday, I had water at 4 miles and 8 miles, and great! Yeah you know what? If it's like 10C hotter, you need more water. [Oh, and a thing I actually forgot till now is that last night while taking apart a brunch-related table I whacked myself good on the inside of my ankle, resulting on some swelling and tenderness that still hasn't gone away, but wasn't any better or worse on the run than any other time in the intervening 24 hours, so probably that's not even relevant, just another awesome.]

Having written this all out now, I'm pretty impressed I didn't keel over into a ditch 3 miles in.

Anyway: what happened was, finally, 14 miles. Of a sadly positive split nature. Overall I had enough water, but it was stupidly timed; too little at the beginning, requiring too sloshy much at the end. At 10 miles I got back to the house, and had some dried apricots and diluted OJ so i actually had some sugar in my body, and the last 4 miles were therefore doable. But the last 2 were like death sentence style running -- I think the slowest pace I saw was 10:10 miles (the overall pace of the run turned out to be 9:30/mile, which was in hindsight what I should have been aiming for all along, but not in this skewed way), but really I think I only got those last two miles in at 9:30 or so because I was using tremendous mental willpower. My body was just like WE ARE DONE AND DYING AND DONE WHAT DONT YOU UNDERSTAND HERE STOP RUNNING. It is NOT reasonable to hit the wall at mile 12. I ran a half marathon the other month! It was like 'oh yeah, this is work, i am kind of uncomfortable' but hardly doom death despair wall-hitting. AND I had hardly been training! So, that felt horrible. ... I actually contemplated stopping and CRYING twice during this run, not because I actually hurt that much -- in fact, I don't have any injuries, really, see below -- but because my SOUL hurt. That's some bad wall hitting, folks. My SOUL wanted me to stop running. Do you see the depth of my issues?

Then I got home, I stretched, I gasped, I showered, I ate a little even though I didn't want to, I felt a little crappy, and then I got this thing I sometimes get after long runs where if I am anything other than lying down, I feel pretty damn nauseous... so my poor parents witnessed my pathetic attempts to sit at dinner table, followed by lying down on helpful nearby couch until I felt well enough to go for ice cream with an old friend (way to rally, eh? and except for wearing really attractive magenta calf compression sleeves with zero shame, i felt 100% back in the land of the living.) Now, of course, I am experiencing post-run ravenousness, but I had some toast with peanut butter and I can safely ignore it until oatmeal o'clock tomorrow.

In short (too late): the goal was 17 miles and I did 14. And had to white knuckle 2 (hell maybe 3) of them.

As you may have sensed, I am pingponging back and forth between two responses to this debacle. Response 1: despite bad choices and odds, you managed to run longer than a half marathon! Learning! You're getting there! Response 2: In 9 weeks you have to run 12 more miles. Girl, you gonna die first.

A potentially convincing happy medium between two said responses is that I didn't hurt myself. At various points while running today, I felt various twinges, but nothing serious. My IT bands didn't bark. That weird hamstring thing I did the other week didn't act up. My calf got tight, and wherever your upper calf muscle attaches in behind your knee, but I stretched it twice, and it was overall ok. I'm sore but not overly so; less sore than when I run a half-marathon at race pace, certainly, and I think pilates tomorrow will be fine. So the overall positive conclusion I can draw is that the white knuckling mindwork did, in fact, overcome the tendency to hurt myself when I'm running tired, because the brain checks out and the legs flail as they want and then familiar pains surface. Since that didn't happen, I must assume both that my mind was still taking care of me, and that in fact my legs are strong enough to carry me through more than 14 miles. Even if I might spend some of them FIGHTING MY SOUL ABOUT DEATH.

And next time I won't be a tool about water or swedish fish.

Next up: Wednesday, eeeeeasy run. Thursday: little race on Ward Island! ... Then on Sunday it's supposed to be cutback long-run week -- 13 miles. But how is that cutback if this week's 17 miles were only 14 miles? I have not decided what to do about that -- whether 13 miles or longer. Maybe 15 miles? I think I need the time on my feet. But then there's the soul thing. We shall see.

Introduction 2: The Plan

Last time we learned: I am training for a marathon, because wtf.

This time we learn: how do I think I'm training for this marathon, exactly?

It is a given that I am a blog-reading junkie, and in particular I'm addicted to the running blogs of a particular, very particular type: 25-35 year old upper-middle class women, sub-4 hour marathon runners, usually craft beer drinkers, either on the all-vegan or all-candy diet, fairly scatterbrained writers, incorrigible selfie-takers, sponsored by makers of specialty electrolyte drinks and running bras with 27 ipod pockets, wearers of rundies, appreciators of ryan gosling, etc. If you have been to the right bits of the internet you know the type. (I also maintain the belief that behind their e-exuberance, each of these women has a carefully guarded personal secret, and I spend my cattiest moments that don't hurt anybody imagining what those secrets are. One of them eats laundry detergent like that person on Intervention! One of them has invented her husband! One of them huffs protein powder and eats her own goldfish! But this is not strictly speaking relevant/normal, so moving on.)

... I also read a lot of other kinds of running blogs -- trail running blogs, running magazine blogs, running company blogs, relay runner blogs, track and field blogs, ultramarathon blogs, even triathlon blogs if i need a quick fix -- and the point is that long, long before I made the bloody minded decision to run a marathon, I had a lot of ideas about training plans.

My requirements of a marathon training plan were two-fold: I wanted to run as few times a week as possible, and I wanted a plan that for whatever reason convinced me I would have trained enough on the day of. Perhaps these sound antithetical? The ultimate issue is this: I have found that running most days a week doesn't make my joints happy. I can run two days in a row, but more is often bad news (I could probably run half an hour easy every day but That's not the goal right now.) What I like to do normally is exercise 6 days a week unless absolutely impossible (i.e. ill) BUT, only run three times a week. Sometimes only two -- even in the depths of winter, I can usually manage to run at least once a week outside through the ice-sleet wastelands or whatever, and then another day on the treadmill. But ideal is three days a week. Thus: when I came across the Run Less, Train Better, Be More Awesome Faster or whatever it's called -- this FIRST plan, in the original Runner's World version, I decided it would be my guide.

This 2005 version of the plan (apparently simplified from their superdeluxe book-buying version) goes like this: for 16 weeks, you run three times each week, including a speed workout, a tempo run and a long run. The speed work is always about 5k worth of running, but it's HARD: you do repeats of between 400 and 1600 meters (roughly meaning a 1/4 mile to a mile) and each one you do faster or considerably faster than your 10k pace. so, when you're doing 400 meter repeats, you're kinda sprinting. The tempo run is anywhere between 3 and 10 miles, and it requires that you move faster than your marathon speed, but not super speedy. And the long runs, which started in week 1 at 10 miles and will include to 20 milers before I'm done, are faster than many training plans suggest, but are your real prep for the idea of running 26.2 miles at a go.

The plan also requires that you crosstrain in some vigorous way twice a week for 45 or so minutes; here I'm in my element. So I figured I'd do my normal cardio something or other two days a week (which right now is swimming, kickboxing class or what my father calls ellipticating), and strength/pilates type stuff two days a week (bearing in mind that one day is real rest day, so i overlap one of the cardio/strength days). And then I also realized I definitely need more core strength than that was maintaining for me, so two extra days a week I add in 20-30 minutes of serious core -- at a minimum i do this with extra planking. Actually I just remembered I have to do a cycle of that core routine tonight (I'm writing from an airplane shuttle bus). And finally there is stretching, which I have traditionally done after every run, but which now I have to do about 10 minutes of every day, and which often ends with just-before-bed foam rolling.

And there is the plan.
And turns out it's really hard.
Argh.

However! I think I have in some way made peace with what's hard about it, and what I'm going to do about it. Hint: it's all about pace.

Next time: how it's going, and what hurts (currently: mostly nothing!)

P.S. I should probably point out right away that I am not, in fact, looking for any advice regarding my training plan. If you know of a better plan -- great! Use it yourself! :)

Introductory Remarks as to Why and What

So I am training for a marathon. It may be making me crazy -- I am not entirely sure. But what I AM sure of is that I want to be able to let out the crazy however it occurs to me, and it's not fair to impose that on all my friends.

Thus, I now have this second blog. If you like running, if you like training updates, if you want to hear about how this one time each of my joints hurt for 10 minutes each in quick succession, if you like the occasional pace-related meltdown, if this actually sounds like content to you -- well, you are in. luck. here. And if not -- you are free to read none of this! If it's boring, if it's rubbing you the wrong way, if it's narcissistic and making you feel bad about either yourself or me: move along without guilt or hesitation! This is the university model of bloggership: I don't take attendance, and you only show up if you're interested. Boom. Liberation. I will keep no page stats, and no amount of input from anyone but my silly lonesome will be required.

Thus liberated, I will ramble on. Today: the background.

How I got started

- I sort of started running/jogging when I was about 20.

- I ran jogged very half-assedly more or less until I was about 28, though for a couple years in grad school I was somewhat more consistent with it, as it was a very effective way of relieving the soul-flogging stress of dissertation writing.

- In the fall of 2008, I joined the Y and started going to the gym more frequently than I had been. I got slightly addicted to group fitness classes, and I started running more consistently again.

- In January or February 2009 I saw an ad for an April 5k race (a month before my 30th birthday). I was pretty sure I had run that far continuously before, so I signed up and got my (alarmingly fit) neighbour to run it with me. And I did it, with fairly little anguish! It took me something like 34 minutes, which felt... maybe not fast, but perfectly reasonable.

- Then in August 2009 I ran a 10k race. My specialty training, in addition to just running consistently as I had been but sometimes for longer, was to make sure I could actually run 10k in a practice run, again with said neighbour and this time accompanied by her friend from the triathlon club. I think the practice run took us about and hour and 10 minutes? I felt pretty solid about that. When I ran the race about 10 days later, it took me 1:00.27 (just looked it up), and that felt hot damn amazing. I walked home wearing my medal. [Note: looking back now, I realize how generous both the neighbour and her friend were to me in those previous runs. I just looked up their results from that 10k race? My neighbour ran it in 50:30. And her friend came in 12th; it took him 34:20. Um, right. Oh, addendum -- the neighbour and her friend moved to Ottawa some years ago now, and they got married yesterday!]

- And then... I got ambitious. And more serious. And in April 2010 I returned to the event I'd run a year before, only this time I ran the half marathon. For reals! I didn't die! It took me 1:58.27. This FLOORED me -- I really didn't expect to run it in less than two hours. I was nearly giggling. ... Well, no, when I crossed the finish line I wanted to collapse a bit, and then I considered puking for a couple seconds, and then once I had stretched and was waiting for my ride I got really cold... but once I had showered and we went for brunch, THEN I was giddy and possibly wanted to giggle.

My running history thus far

- Since then I've run lots of races. Some 5ks, including a bunch of very humbling trail 5ks in the spring and fall, some 8ks and 10ks, a couple 10 milers, maybe 10 half marathons (several in the winter and OH GOD they were cold, plus one of them was entirely on sheer ice), one 200-mile 12 person overnight relay, and last year in March I ran a 30k (18mile) race in about 2:50. My typical race times are about 52-54 minutes for a 10k, and 1:54 or so for a half marathon (my PRs are a couple minutes faster for each; this one time I ran a 49:30 10k but that was during the tail end of a crazy thunderstorm and the finish line was the 50 yard line of a 110,000 person football stadium so obviously it was lunacy and probably doesn't count.)

In the meantime

- Also relevant, I think: starting when I joined the Y, over the next 18 months I lost about 70 or 80 pounds. I'm not really sure how much, but at any rate my North American clothing size went from something like 18 or 20 to 8 or 10. Running wasn't the only part of that, but obviously it was not no part of that.

- Finally: I've of course had injuries. Since that first 5k race, only three things have stopped me running. First: I didn't know enough about IT bands, and I ran too hard with hips that were too weak on some downhills, and one of my knees got ANGRY. I found a PT, he told me I couldn't run for two weeks (DAMN), he gave me stretches and strengthening exercises that I still do about every other day, and that got sorted out. Second: I lost six weeks to a completely unrelated double retina semi-emergency surgery, which was as exciting as it sounds (as in, very exciting, but not the good kind), and which meant I spent about two weeks recovering and then four weeks taking VERY long walks until I was allowed to do 'jarring' activities again. Third: two years ago I partially tore my left gastronemius (um, it's in your calf?) while teaching a step aerobics class (yes, I know, shut up), and that took a couple months to get healed, including very pathetic crutches and a bunch more physio.

And then it was now

That about brings us up to speed. It's August 2013. I'm 34. I'm about 10 pounds heavier than the weight I stabilized at in 2010/2011, which is non-optimal but which I'm getting sorted out. And I'm at the beginning of week 6 of a 16-week marathon plan. I have paid money and booked a hotel room, and October 20th, I am supposed to show up heinously early to a bit of downtown Detroit, and run to Canada, and back, and eventually cover 26.2 miles. This is a patently ridiculous idea, but then again I'm not sure any of my previously documented ideas weren't ridiculous either.

So, I'm committed. ... And yet I think it's taking a rather odd toll on my mental state, this marathon business, and thus the urge to report the experience somewhere, namely here. More soon.

[Endnote: the title of this blog is a quote I know from my father, though I'm sure he got it from a movie or a TV show somewhere, sometime. The internet proved alarmingly useless as to its origins. It seemed fitting as a blog title both because my dad was my inspiration to run, and because I think of it fondly but grimly when I'm running in an unfamiliar park and I'm pretty sure I'm confused about my direction by (it's always this way) 90 degrees, but I don't know WHICH 90 degrees, so I don't know whether turning will solve the problem or make it much worse. Luckily, I usually run into someone, or a big road, or both.]