September 20th, 2005 (4 Days until Adirondack Marathon)

With less then a week until the first of my back-to-back marathons, I'm re-experiencing pre-race self-doubt. Training for a marathon requires a 3 week, pre-race tapering of miles per week to ensure complete muscle recovery by marathon time. A side effect of running fewer miles per week is the notion that "I'm no longer in tiptop shape". Which raises the thought, "Can I still run a marathon?"

Two days ago I ran my last pre-marathon, long run - an 8.7 mile loop at home. With a number of rest days the previous week, I was thrilled to see my casual pace was a (faster than I thought) 9:25 minute mile. Proof again, that "recovery" (i.e., rest days) is critical to improve long distance running.

It just stopped raining... I'm off for an easy 3 mile jog.

September 25th, 2005 (Adirondack Marathon)

I caught up with Long Shots and Marathon John as they wandered around the village of Schroon Lake waiting for the 0900 hour marathon start time. My goal was to run the first 4 miles at 9:30 minute miles, run 10:00-10:30 minute miles up/down the huge hills between miles 4 and 12, and then cruise the rest of the course between 10:00-11:00 minute miles.

It was perfect race weather. At start time, the temperature was about 50 degrees and overcast.

Overall, I think I ran the first half of the course too fast. At mile-1 my pace was 8:50. At mile 13, after killer hills, my average pace was an amazing 9:20 minute per mile. Between 15 and 26 my pace slowed to yield an overall race pace of 10:20 per mile for a 4:32:56 finish - just over my 4:30:00 goal!

Garmin GPS watch - Forerunner 201: About a month ago I sent my watch back to Garmin for 2 reasons. First, it's waterproofing had become breached and a moisture bubble had developed under the viewing lens. Secondly, it turned it self off twice on two different long runs. Several days ago the replacement arrived and I took it out for a spin. I quickly realized it's GPS reception seemed to be stronger then my original watch! When I ran the Adirondack Marathon course with Long Shots for distance training 4 weeks ago, I lost GPS reception for most of the time between a miles 5 and 12 (very shady and overcast). Today, running the same course with overcast, I didn't lose the signal once... and I never received a "weak signal" alert as well. I'm thrilled with my replacement!

I'm now ready to adjust my training as I prepare to tackle... the Marine Corps Marathon in 5 weeks!