I ran the first and last miles of the Austin Marathon today. Our training group, that is, the beginners, were supposed to run 16 miles, but I decided I needed to up it to 18 miles, that is, what the intermediates were supposed to run. So now you should be saying. Why are you running 18 miles when you’re not planning on running the marathon? That’s an interesting question and one I really can’t answer. All I can say is that I had planned to do all the training, but not run the marathon so I’m still doing that. Note a few days ago I signed up for the last three races of the year – the RunTex Twenty, the 3M Half Marathon, and the Austin HALF Marathon (yes, only the half – I’m retired from the running the marathon). Since I was doing 20 miles next weekend I decided that I should do 18 miles to prepare for the race next weekend. Whatever that means. Yet I’m having misgivings now about signing up for the RunTex Twenty. I don’t know what got into me. That’s 20, two-zero, miles. But what is done is done. Now I have to follow through. Back to the run today… During an early part of today’s run I caught up and passed Sadie saying hello on the way by. Then near the end she caught up to me at a water stop and asked how old I was. I told her 59 and she said that it was remarkable (or something like that). Well a few minutes later and about a half mile down the road I was beat, started to walk and Sadie yelled at me and spurred me on to start running again. Thank you Sadie I needed that. I finished in 2:47 for 18.3 miles or about 9:08/mile.
Interesting. I read some negative comments you made about yourself on Sadie’s blog about being on the the downside. What’s that all about? Looks to me like you are doing pretty darn good for a person of ANY age. Go out to Georgetown next week and have fun. Don’t worry about pace. Just try to plan it so you finish a little faster than you start.