I’m sitting in a posh (complimentary!) room at the Aria Resort and Casino. Apparently some big pharmaceutical company rented a block of rooms at Mandalay Bay, so my reservation there was canceled. As a result, I’m here at the Aria for two nights (FREE) and I’ve been given $100 food and drink comps during my time here. Of course, since I’m not allowed to drink tonight — and tomorrow is the marathon — I don’t know if I’ll be able to take as much advantage of that as I would under normal circumstances.
It took me half of my mile-long cool-down walk on Thursday morning to realize that I was DONE with this period of marathon training! For the past 18 weeks (…4 months, …1/3 OF THIS YEAR) I have devoted myself to eating right and not drinking, to being a pathetic hermit who stayed in every weekend and continually disappointed all his friends, to enduring long runs at dawn followed by full days of work, to taking this way more seriously than I did last time. Now I’m just about 24 hours from the starting gun. It’s not as weird a feeling as it was last year, but it’s still hard to believe I’m doing this (again).
During the past 18 weeks I have completed 71 training runs. I missed one due to food poisoning, and the day after that I only ran 4 out of the 5 miles I was supposed to, but other than that I hit every goal I was supposed to — and exceed others. In total, those 71 mornings added up to 459.61 miles run. That’s almost 20 miles further than last year. Of those 71 activities, 67 were competed with the aid of my Garmin ForeRunner (410), which tracked 448.69 of the miles I ran. The other four exercises were completed via treadmill. I ran for over 62 hours between July 31st and November 29th. My average speed during those 62 hours was 7.2 mph. My average heart rate was 158bpm, and I burned nearly 47,000 calories. I’m sure none of these numbers mean anything to you.
This time around, my diet was completely different. I ate more leafy greens, more complete carbohydrates (buckwheat or soba noodles in lieu of regular pasta), and tried to limit sugars and fats. I cooked more chicken, made more salads, and cooked my own pasta to “carb load” before long runs. Perhaps most importantly, I went sober for almost the entire four months I trained. I know it’s hard to believe, but the only times I allowed myself a drink were for Ian’s bachelor party in August, Dan’s birthday in August, Ian’s wedding in October, and one halloween party in October. Other than that, I haven’t touched any alcohol. For the last six weeks I have been stone-cold sober. It has sucked a lot of fun out of my life, but I’m reaping the health benefits. I feel stronger, my times continue to improve, I lost ten pounds, and I’ve read an written a lot with all the time I haven’t spent partying.
My expectations for tomorrow are at odds with themselves. I want to run the best race I can, but I have to keep in mind that when I signed up for this I just wanted to beat last year’s time. Publicly I say I simply want to complete the marathon in under four hours. I should be faster than Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin. They finished in 4:01 and 3:59 respectively. I think. With all those lies who can really be certain? I think John Edwards’ 3:30 is out of reach, although 3:45 wouldn’t be entirely out of the question. I finished my 20-mile run in 2:48, so if I ran 10-minute miles the rest of the way I’d finish in 3:48. That would be an almost 40-minute improvement over last year’s time. That’s something to be proud of, right? Hell, i’d be happy with a 20 minute improvement. Honestly, I’d just be happy to finish. 26.2 miles is no joke. As long as I cross the finish line I’ll feel like devoting 4 months of my life to this will have been worthwhile.
Also, no crying this year. That shit’s for rookies.
I had an amazing meal at Bouchon today in the Venetian. Check out this mouth-boner of a Croque-madame:
Elizabeth Cotten – Graduation March [MP3]
