I wrote yesterday how I was asked to be featured with my daughter to talk about Via, its services and the Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon which i’m running this weekend, well I got my 1:41 of TV fame! You can watch the segment here from WFMZ about me and my daughter and Via. I guess its as close as I’ll get to stardom at this point in my life, but my daughter and I enjoyed it and it gave us a chance to talk about the great things that organizations like Via do for people with disabilities, thanks to Stephanie Esposito and her photgrapher at WFMZ-TV news for their time and effort on this segment yesterday, it turned out great!

So I’m in a lull right now waiting for the marathon to come this weekend. I did get out for 2 fast miles this morning, and intend to do the same on Saturday before leaving for the race. Tapering is hard for me, because I love the miles, and my body craves the miles, but at this point I know I need to rest in order to be in top shape for Sunday. The weather is not looking like a problem at this point, it may be damp, but temperatures are expected to be in the mid 50’s to start, with a high in the mid 70’s by the afternoon … note that the race starts at 6:45am on Sunday, so we’ll be wrapped up before it even gets too warm I hope. I was able to see the one section of the cinder/tow path during my interview, seems like a nice course (and I really liked Bethlehem as well), so i’m thinking it’ll be a good run.

In case anybody has forgot, its carb and water time, the finest time of the training … I hate consuming gallons of water and then consuming all these carbs because it bloats me out .. but I know I need to. I’m confirming my plans for the weekend and I’ve come to find that there is no formal expo or anything prior to the race, just packet pickup either Saturday night at a local restaurant or Sunday morning at the race itself. I confirmed the hotel, know the route to get there … i guess theres not too much more to do except mentally prepare, which is the hardest.

Thankfully i’ve found that since I’ve started running such high miles per week, that I recover much faster after a marathon .. if I look back to the time between New Jersey and Delaware, I probably could’ve got a 20 miler in pretty easily between races and was eager to run the next day (but didn’t). We’ll see if that carry through this time as well .. My biggest concern is that usually the first race of the season isn’t my best, I’m hoping thats not the case here … we must work on mental prep and reviewing my previous posts after the bad races to remember to KEEP MY PACE! In each of the races I didn’t do too good on (except the Ocean Drive marathon, which I just wasn’t ready for), I always went out too fast .. I have to set my pace and stick to it, thats really the plan. I do have to decide if I want to take the Ipod with me for the course, because it may get lonely out there .. I think we’ll carry it, but not right from the start …

So we’re off to enjoy a day and half of rest before the race …. hopefully we’ll get healed up well enough to have a great race!