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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.