I'm now into my fourth week of training for the Marine Corps Marathon with 20 weeks to go, about 159 days before I toe the line up in the Washington, DC. I'm already around 25 miles short of setting a new record for miles I've run in a calendar year...269 set last year...and it's only late May! By the time this is over, I'll have a personal record that I'm not sure I'll ever break. Surprisingly, I'm not as sore or stiff in the legs as I thought I'd be but I'm sure an injury or two will crop up before October gets here. I ordered a MCM training shirt (see above) which says In Training on the front and Semper Fi on the back. So far I've been faithful in my training, only having to make one adjustment to change a scheduled training day to another day, and I'm a little surprised at how I'm sticking to the plan. I could eat a little better and sleep more! I guess I'm becoming a tad obsessive with wanting to do this and a year ago I had no idea I'd even consider doing a marathon! The goal is to go under a 3:45 time and if I run it smart I could do under a 3:30. Main thing is to finish with a respectable time and to be happy with my effort.
Last weekend was time-consuming and busy. We drove to Birmingham, Alabama and back with only an overnight stay so we could attend the wedding of Dale's daughter, Athena. The birth announcement I did for Athena's arrival into the world back in 1986 got me my first Gold Addy award as a free-lancer. I've known Dale since we were in high school and his son, Erik, is my god-son so there was a lot of personal connections here. We had a great time but the weekend wore us out. I had to get up at 5 am Saturday morning to get in my long run for the week: 8 miles which included hill repeats. Jonnene takes the dogs to the kennel, and after I shower we are on our way. Forgot to mention going to an art show the night before! Get to B-ham, dress up fancy and head to the wedding. Reception...food, dancing, seeing people I haven't seen in a long time...back to the hotel and sleep. Then up Sunday morning to drop by Dale's house for an hour or so, then back to Shreveport just in time to attend the last hour of a friend's 50th birthday party! I think Jonnene and I are still recovering.....
