You always remember your first time...

The first time is always special. You've been anticipating it for a long time. You've heard about how it's supposed to be from your friends. You aren't sure if it's going to live up to it's expectations. It's a little awkward. You aren't sure if you are doing it right and you just don't know if it's going to end up as a huge disappointment.

For me it was very sweet. I took my time freeing it from it's confinement. I took great care with the clasp as I didn't want to force it. I slid it on and gently pressed it's button. It seemed to light up and spring to life. Before I knew it, it was urging me to go faster. I didn't want to go too far with it yet as I was unsure of how sensitive it was. I took my time and went slow. As I had feared I had misjudged it and and what I needed from it. So I stopped. I removed it from it's protective coating and then discharged it's contents.

It needed me to be far more deliberate, so I slid it back on and went a predetermined length. It still didn't want to listen to me so I had to be a little more forceful and tell it exactly how far it went. The next time it behaved as I predicted it should.

So that's how it went tonight when I got my new Nike+ SportBand out and went for a run. It was a little off saying that I had run for 1.05 miles when it was actually only a mile. I then took it to the track and ran for 0.75 miles. It said 0.83 miles so using the SportBand software on my laptop I calibrated it. After that I calibrated for walking and walked 1.25 miles. It was much closer to the actual distance when I walked it.

I"ll take it out in the morning and run 6.2 miles and see how it does. I'm really happy with it so far and I'll remember my first time always.

13.1 Personal Best!

I recorded my personal best for the half-marathon distance this morning @ 02:24:50!! w00t!! Also, I ran the whole distance!! I almost twisted my ankle and took about one dozen walking steps to make sure I was okay and at one other point I had to take a few steps because my iPod paused and I had to dig it out and restart it, but other than the whole distance was run. That's a huge accomplishment for me. What a great Sunday!!

My previous personal best for the half marathon 02:26:34

Shoe Meter Says...

I checked in on my shoe meter this morning and it looks like I'm going to be out buying some new shoes this weekend. #nikeplus After this morning's run I'll have logged 450 miles on them since June 15. They are starting to look a little worn on the bottom.

The shoe meter I use is over at http://www.slowgeek.com . If you have a Nike+ profile set up to be public, it can use the data that you upload from your plus to give you more detailed graphs, quick statistics and has the handy dandy shoe meter. You can see what my profile looks like here http://slowgeek.com/pr/bfg1971

Baby Steps

I was a little apprehensive about running today because I didn't know how I'd feel after Sunday's 23 miles. It went surprisingly well. It wasn't fast, but I didn't run until after dark so my steps were a tad tentative (one might say baby steps) because I didn't want to trip on a rock or a twig. I didn't set my run up for a distance. I set it up for 60 minutes and just turned around at 30 minutes. I guess I did better on the second half because I got back to the starting point before my 60 minutes were up. I guess that means it was a negative split albeit a small one. Yeah for me.

I'm not going to hit my goal of 150 miles in four weeks, but I'll be close. I should be at about 130 when it's over on Thursday. Not bad for doctors orders keeping me on the bench for almost five consecutive days.

It ain't pretty

It wasn't pretty, but it's done. My longest training run before the race is now in the books. 23 miles yesterday starting at 5:20am so I could get my run over and take M to her softball game. The best part was that I wasn't completely wrecked.

Each time I do a 20+ mile run it seems to get a little bit easier and I don't feel as bad afterward. It's going to be tough for me to hit my goal time of 5 hours and 30 minutes on race day but I think it'll be close.

Once again, Laela came out and saved the day by bringing me a PB&J , some Powerade, and refilled all of my water bottles at about mile 15. She waited for in the lot parking lot from 7:45 until 8:40 for me to show up. Running those kinds of distances by yourself requires some planning and I could NOT have completed it without Laela's support.

10111

Tomorrow's ambitious plan. My longest training run before the big show. Sunday is packed with things to do, so I have to get it done early. Hoping to be finished, home and cleaned up by 11:00am.

Fail Whale

Isn't technology great? Or isn't technology really creepy? I haven't decided which.

I signed up with @TweetMyTime to update my status while I'm running the #CbusMarathon, in real-time, during the race on Oct 18 #fb

It'll also update my Facebook status. I'm shooting for a 5 1/2 hour finsih time so it won't be updating quickly.

I can be followed @speedwalrus on twitter.

Tweet my time can be followed @tweetmytime

The Gauntlet

Here is the course map for the Columbus Marathon. It seems a little more real now that I've looked at it. Here's a link to an easier to read PDF.

2008 Columbus Marathon Course Map

Next week is my last long run before the big event. 23 miles on Sunday the 20th. I'm looking forward to completing it and hoping that I do as well as I did last week. It's going to be a little tougher as I won't have last week's run support.

Like Robinson Crusoe it's primitive as can be

I ran today with no electronic devices other than my stopwatch. I felt like Tom Hanks in Castaway. It was the first time I've ever run without an iPod for music. With all of the difficutlties I've been having with my iPod and moisture lately, I didn't want to risk ruining Miranda's if I got caught in a rainshower. It was actually kind of liberating. I knocked out six miles in 63 minutes and 7 seconds. I didn't like having to hear myself breathe, but other than that it was quite relaxing. I used the website nikeplusedit.com to create a file for my Nike+ training program to account for my run. I mapped it using mapmyrun.com so my distance was correct. My graph is inaccurate but the distance and time information is right so that's all I'm really concerned about.

Under six weeks to go

I'm getting into the home stretch. There are less than six weeks to go and finally some positive developments.

After a week of whining and feeling sorry for myself, I knocked it out of the park this weekend. I got a 6.4 mile run in Saturday morning and then went out and killed 21 miles on Sunday. That's over a full marathon distance in about 24 hours (I hope it doesn't take me 24 hours on October 18 ;) I just came to that realization about 10 minutes ago and it's given me some hope. More good news: my pace was better than the last time I ran 20 miles. The last time I did 20 miles it was at a pace of 13'16"/mile and on Sunday it 12'52"/mile. Thank you coach Laela!

She came out for run support today on her bicycle. I got off to a little later start than I told her I would and paced myself differently. Consequently she didn't meet me until she was nine miles from her car so she ended up riding her bike for 18 miles. She brought me water and ended up carrying my water belt for me. I certainly couldn't have finished today's run nearly as strong without her. She pushed me when I needed pushed and let me dial it down when I needed to.

Ambition falls apart

Running-wise, August was a rough month for me and September isn't shaping up to be any better. The onset of bronchitis and going back to work have both bestowed upon me some hefty challenges to overcome.

I'm starting to question my commitment to running a marathon. It was easy to run in July and early August because I wasn't working. Lately I keep being able to find excuses to not run. Trying to carve out an hour to an hour and a half to run six or eight miles in the middle of the week after working all day has been virtually impossible the over the last week and a half. Couple that with my disappointing performance in Sunday's half-marathon and I've got two real motivation killers on my hands. Since August 11, I've missed 75 training miles (granted some of those missing miles were doctors orders), but I've got to find a way to get back on track or I'm never going to be ready by October 18.