Week 17 - "Life's Been Good to Me So Far" -

"I can't complain but sometimes I still do. Life's been good to me so far."

- Joe Walsh

It has gone fast. Here I am with Week 17 of St. Hal Higdon's marathon program in the books.  I am in a good place.  The mind is good.  The body is stronger than when I began. As my neighbor in Vermilion says with a smile, "It's nice to see..... less of you." The weight loss is almost on target. It's been a lot of miles. Things are as they should be.

The Boss posing in front of the "I Love Lucy" mural in Downtown Jamestown, New York:

Yesterday I ran in the Lucy Town Half Marathon in Jamestown. My Facebook friends already know that TB won her age group in impressive fashion.  We had different race objectives. My goal for the race was to practice my marathon run/walk doing two minutes of running and thirty seconds of walking. The purpose of the walk portion is to conserve strength and work different muscle groups in my legs according to running guru and former Olympian Jeff Galloway. It works for me.

Sunday was supposed to be an eight mile training day according to St, Hal's schedule, but as in the previous posting, The Boss would have none of that. She wanted me to do more. This next part comes hard to say............."She was....ahem......right." Now its time to taper.

My favorite American guitarist, music personality, and philosopher:

I began yesterday's race easy, standing almost last in line at the start.  Heck, what did I care? To quote Joe Walsh one more time, "I'm an analog man in a digital world," when it comes to running.  I like races to start early in the morning so that we runners stay out of the way of motorists and the sun in the summer. I like wearing running shoes until they're worn and I don't want to wear them anymore. I like not wearing a running watch in races just like in the 1970's and before. I still haven't gotten over New Balance changing their logo. I've never been a fan of Nike shoes. I'm sure they're great, I just don't wear them. I like pull tags on numbers instead of chips on shoes or on the back of race bibs. Didn't the Duel in the Sun happen at last April's Boston Marathon? The sport of running has moved in a different direction. To each their own. I'm getting better the more I get stuck in the past.

St. Hal advises his marathon race disciples to start slowly. Yesterday I knew Columbus was on the horizon in less than a week. Wearing myself out in Jamestown a week before Columbus was not on the radar. I also knew I felt really good and that I was here, and "this is now."  I decided that it was time to make the most it. While I started slowly, I picked up my pace at the halfway point.  I felt myself getting stronger. I started picking off runners. I was being competitive. Its been a long time since I've even thought like that.  It felt good. Really good.

At ten miles my thoughts were, "5K? No problem." As I crossed the finish line, I kept running.  I wasn't even close to being toast. This is good. My time, 2:41:11 by the clock.  In reality on a stand alone basis, no question in my mind, a time of 2:30:00 was very possible yesterday. However, you are what your time on the clock says. I did something else yesterday that I had not done in a long long time.  I ran a negative split.  I ran the second part of the course faster than I ran the first part. Nice.

It's now down to nutrition, the taper routine, and as much rest as I can get. My goal is to finish smiling on Sunday.  Sincerely smiling.  And when the pain sets in and the legs and the body get tired, I'll need to remember the benefits of the lonely miles. It will be an honor to once again be part of the fraternity and sorority of marathoners who paid as much or more of price than I did to be at the starting line in Columbus. That's when the voice in my head and the music in my soul that sounds suspiciously like my man Joe will take over and remind me, "Life's been good to me so far." It really has. Thanks to all who have made that possible.