Four weeks from today is the 110th running of the Boston Marathon. Right now, I’d say my chances are about 10 to 1 against running in it. As I mentioned in a post last month, I injured my back. I’ve gone to the chiropractor 13 times over the past month trying to get my back into a position that will allow me to run. I ran a short 6-mile run last Wednesday and a 12-mile run on Friday. It was a real challenge just to get the 12-mile run done. With almost no running for the better part of the last month, I’m really not in any kind of shape to tackle a marathon. I should be running 40-50 miles per week right now and I have only run about 20 miles in the last month. If I was on a normal training schedule, I should be doing a 20-mile run this week and then taper down my runs the last three weeks before the race. What I’m going to try and do is an 18-mile run this week and a 20-mile run next week. If I can accomplish that without injuring myself, I’ll probably do the marathon. However, instead of running with the idea of getting done in a certain timeframe, my goal will be to just try and finish. There’s no way I can be competitive. At this point, I’ll just have to be satisfied with running in the race and finishing it.
Today I’ll be going on my 6-mile run and on Thursday or Friday I’ll do the 18-miler. I’m still excited that I might yet get a chance to run in the Boston Marathon. Two weeks ago I was pretty sure it was out of the question. Maybe there’s still some hope. Plus, I just got a pair of Boston Marathon running shorts and a shirt for my birthday from my wife and daughter. Maybe that was just what I needed to get me in the right frame of mind. We’ll know for sure in a week or so.
