Race Report: Harrisburg Marathon
I certainly never thought I'd run a marathon in Harrisburg. But things happen in life and you go with the flow. Leading up to the race, I felt mostly good, although I was bothered by lower leg muscle tightness. This is a long-term problem I've had. Naturally, I skipped massage or even the stick and kinda wished it away. Bad move. Saturday morning, I woke up with a severe leg cramp. My left leg was sore the rest of the day.I went to Harrisburg with a few goals in mind. At the very least, I wanted to run under 3:15. A "good" race would be under 3:10. The miracle would be under 3, which I knew as far-fetched. I'm not a very good race strategist. I don't like to hold back early in r

Race Time
It's time. There's about 40 hours until I start my 15th marathon. I've gotten nervous before each one. This is no different. There's always the phantom injuries, the sluggishness, irritability, then the doubts. My guess is it's always the fear of failure, not so much of running slowly but not re

Plan B
Something that you quickly learn in distance running is things go awry. There seems to always be something during a long run that will surprise. The trick is figuring how to deal with the unexpected. The most frustrating mishaps are those that are self-inflicted. I'm feeling that way now. I planned to run the Philadelphia Marathon. In the back of my mind, until recently, I worried I wouldn't be able to do it because of my Achilles. So I procrastinated on the very basic necessity of marathon running: signing up for the race. You can imagine where this is going. The marathon is now sold out. So I'm moving on. I'm bummed because a few good friends are running the race, and I had plans to try t

A Very Good Day
I haven't posted here in a while. Since the triathlon, I've gone back to running mainly, only I'm trying to cross-train more. It's gone alright, although I still have pain in my Achilles. My plan has been to cut down on junk miles and concentrate on four or five quality runs a week. That's worked pretty well.Today, I put my fitness to the test. It's a little less than two months before the Philadelphia Marathon. I wanted to see where I am. The NYRR 18-Mile Marathon Tune-up was perfect for that. The day went better than I could have hoped. Going in, considering my 1:38 in the Brooklyn Half, I figured a 2:15 would be a good result. In the back of my mind, of course, I wanted to do