imPATIENT

My wife and I spent last weekend in the Berkshires where we found the bumper sticker pictured above. The store sold an eclectic mix of used albums, vintage clothes, old board games and other random items. The bumper sticker caught my eye because it captured how my body feels 6 weeks into my training program. While I feel better than expected, I am definitely spending far too much time wrestling with my physical demons. There has been no snuggling. This weekend will be a real test as my mileage increases significantly. I’m supposed to do a 7-mile “fast” run on Saturday and 14 miles on Sunday. That 14-miler scares me. That's a lot of miles at any pace. Metrics Total Miles since the start of training: 145 Chiropractic: 3 adjustments Physical Therapy: 2 sessions for a hip alignment issue It seems like I'm spending as much time getting adjusted, realigned and massaged by my medical team as I am training. That’s probably not a good sign.

“I never really discussed this with anyone because it sounds pretentious, but I started running….to become a better person. I thought if you could run one hundred miles, you’d be in this Zen state. You’d be the fu*$#%& Buddha, bringing peace and a smile to the world. It didn’t work in my case—I’m the same old punk-ass as before—but there’s always the hope that it will turn you into the person you want to be, a better, more peaceful person.” Jenn Shelton, Born to Run   Running just might turn me into a better and more peaceful person. I can hope, but like Jenn, I’m currently the same old punk-ass that I’ve always been. That said, I’m only 3 ½ weeks into my 18-week training plan, so maybe by the marathon I’ll lose the punk and just be an ass? I am raising money for a great cause , so that should help. I wasn’t sure my old carcass could handle a 26-mile run when I chose to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon, and I don’t think I’ll know until race day.  I am deali

I will be running in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. this fall to raise money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB). FFB is the world's leading private funder of research aimed at preventing, treating and curing blindness caused by retinal degenerative diseases. While my primary goal is to raise funds for FFB, I have a personal fitness goal as well. I ran the Boston Marathon in 1999 with a time of 4:30. It’s the only marathon I’ve done and though I am proud that I finished, I am not proud of my time. To put my time in perspective, it’s quite possible that Boston’s winner that year, Joseph Chebet, was back home in Kenya by the time I staggered across the finish line. The median marathon finishing time in 2015 for men in U.S. marathons was 4:20 according to Running USA, while a Runner’s World’s analysis of 3 major fall marathons in the US (NY, CHI, DC),  found the average time for men in the 40-49 age group to be 4:33. In other words, at age 29, in my at