I have owned a smart phone for almost 10 years now, and still do not know where to look in the camera for a selfie. The fact is, those ten years span a time period where people took one look at me and said, “So… not running, huh?”
Nope.
And I didn’t run the Philadelphia Marathon this year, either. I dropped my registration from the “Full” to the “Half” Marathon in late September. I was running, but I was not running the high mileage necessary to avoid injury. By the time the race rolled around, I had not run in a month. I can point the finger of blame in a lot of places, but it all comes back to me. I did not take the time in April, May and June so it was easy to fall behund in September and October.
When my wife saw the picture above, she knew it was about four miles inside the race. She said, “Where are all the people?”
The people were ahead of me. Of course, even though we were at the race in plenty of time, (almost an hour and a half early), the security lines were long and slow and we entered the starting line staging area 30 minutes AFTER the gun. No matter, they were starting us in stages, and we joined the last group to leave. I had about 100 miles on my legs but as mentioned earlier, none in 30 days. So I cautiously balanced my race between walking and running. I am, for the readers of my book and past blog, Running Standing Up, accustomed to finishing nearly last.
But, dear readers, I am also tired of it.
I finished the Half (on my feet) and almost twice as long as my best time, which was half way through the Cleveland Marathon in 2007. I was thrilled because it was such a fun race. And my wife and I had a spectacular time from the start of the trip to the very end. I ‘ran’ horribly, but it was fun. No race holds a candle to the atmosphere and environment of Philadelphia.
But…
I need to get into shape again. I need to run again. If ten years passes by again, I will be closing in on an age where you don’t buy running shoes, you buy boat shoes. Haha. Not really, but boy it feels that close.
So let’s try something new- instead of signing up for a marathon eight months down the road- let’s just plan the first month. Heck, let’s plan the first week.
Run. Run. Run.
Sheesh, why do I spend so much time planning and so little time running?
Until tomorrow.
