Boston Marathon

I didn't think I'd run another marathon, but today starts my official training for the 2010 Boston Marathon.

Why am I doing this?

Partially because I can. What I mean is, I'm allowed to run the Boston Marathon. You see, you have to qualify for Boston, and somehow, I managed to do so this year when I ran the Long Island Marathon. (Why did I run a marathon in the first place? See my 6/23/09 post). It was gruelling, and I didn't think I'd ever want to run another one, but some things happened to change my mind.

First, a lot of real runners, when they heard I qualified for Boston, told me I HAD to go.

That, alone, wasn't enough to convince me.

I ran a couple of more races -- much shorter races -- and, I managed to take home a second place and third place medal. Yeah for me!

Not bad for an old man. I'm actually having more success running now than when I ran track in high school. . . .

Then I read a couple of books -- Chi Running by Danny and Katherine Dreyer, and Run Fast by Hal Higdon. I realized that I had been severely over-training. Me, over-training, imagine that . . . .

Anyway, I got a hold of a Hal Higdon marathon running plan (Advanced version -- why completely stop torturing myself?). Liked what I saw. Tried it out. And, you know what? Not so bad.

I also, somehow, managed to forget the pain of training for, and running, the Long Island Marathon.

But most importantly, I still feel like I have something to prove to myself. I really want to do this.

So, here we go again. One workout down -- 89 to go.