9/4/07

Training day 2:

35:00 minutes, 3.4 miles.

For was good as my run on Sunday was, today was as bad. I think I started out too fast. I was fine for about 15:00, then I was exhausted. I followed my rule of "don't stop unless something HURTS, or you can't breathe," and I pushed on for a few more minutes. Around the 22:00 mark, I slowed down to a walk for 2:00, then I picked back up to run the last 11:00. Tomorrow is a scheduled 40:00 run, so I will have to be careful and keep my pace down.

I was going to post some of the fun things I have come across in the wake of the Mountaineers' win on Saturday, but I figure if you turn on a channel with any sports related programming, you've seen it. And a youtube search for "App Michigan" yields many entertaining clips. Unless you happen to be a Michigan fan. The exposure for the university is awesome, and it's good for all of I-AA football as well. Nine times out of ten, the I-A school will win. But there are some damn fine athletes that play in every division of the NCAA, and I hope that for once people will listen when we say "Good football is good football, whether it is in front of 109,000 or 1,200."

In my post on Saturday, I said that I knew we were going up there for our paycheck, and hopefully we would come home with a little respect. I have watched quite a bit of Appalachian Football in the last seven years. I certainly didn't expect us to go up there and win. But I am not surprised in the least that we did.

2 comments:

DarG said...

I am going to demonstrate that the world of distance running transcends all other worlds; runners connect as runners on a deeper level than anything else.

That is: if you are a runner and I am a runner, than it will not matter that I am posting today as a lifelong Michigan fan, graduate, and season-ticket holder (who gave my tickets to friends and thus missed the game last Saturday, thank God).

Rather I post to congratulate you on your decision to train for and run a marathon -- and urge you to follow that by running a lifetime more of them. Stick with the training, even when it gets ugly, painful and impossible (and it will!) and you'll be rewarded with one of the greatest emotional moments of your entire life. Greater than even the transitory joy of a victorious football game!

Before I'm 35 said...

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am quite excited and equally, if not more so, terrified. I trained for and ran a half with, relatively speaking, few physical problems. I guess I am afraid the proverbial wheels are going to fall of me some time in late November.

I posted the that the exposure for my school was great. And it is. But it is starting to border on overexposure. I am afraid of the bad karma for us, and I am sure you all are more than ready to move on as well.

But I will be purchasing more than one copy of the new SI when it comes out.

Thanks again, and happy running!