I never thought I could get in 14 miles on a Wednesday like I did today. I’m finding something interesting in tracking my times though .. basically the time for the first half of a run is SLOWER than that of the second half, hmm, how does that happen? You would think that performance on the first half would be FASTER, because I have more energy and are fresh and everything, but I really think it comes down to endurance. I notice that I don’t even get into my real pace until mile 3, so that could be part of it. I guess thats a good thing for a marathon that I go out slower than faster for any run, it gets me prepped for the marathon.

I’ve had some struggles determining which music device to take with me running. If you’ve read back, i’ve been faithful to the Sirius Stileto 100 (yep, i’m a satellite guy). I’ve had a few issues with, so in the time that i’ve had issues with it, i’ve acquired an Ipod Shuffle, so i’ve been mixing up both for my runs. The Stileto is heavy to carry, and I don’t listen to the mobile satellite, instead I choose to listen to already recorded songs, mp3s or shows. Once or twice i’ll use the uncomfortable satellite headphones to listen to live programming, but not too often. The Ipod shuffle on the other hand, is small and convenient, so i’ve grown accustomed to it. I used it on my 21 miler on Saturday and it worked out great. So its hard to chose which is the better as they both have their own distinct purpose and use, I guess it all comes down to what i’m in the mood for…

Theres a local race (5K) going on tomorrow night 8/14/08 that is part of the Run for the Fallen. It primarily supports a local fallen soldier, so its a great cause, and I should get myself into a race or two just to get in race mode again prior to the marathon season. We’ll see how the weather holds up and how I feel, and that race will take me over the 70 mile mark for the week (because I won’t skip out on my 8 miles in the morning, its speedwork). Its only 3 miles, and in the grand scheme, it should be fairly easy ..

Speaking of other races, I did get a flier in the mail about the Niantic Bay half-marathon in September. Its in East Lyme, Connecticut, which is not far from where my in-laws live, and my wife wants to go up anyway, so we might just do it. I’m not sure how it fits into my schedule, but we’ll have to see. I don’t know if running a half just 2 weeks before the second marathon is a good, but we’ll see, it does seem like a nice course…

Lastly, I came across a great article on two people running the Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon for VIA, that really speaks to the reason why i’m running it. The article can be found HERE. From the article:

The Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon for VIA will continue to grow, as will the need for our community to call on VIA to help our children learn and mature, and help adults with disabilities achieve their goals and aspirations. Run, walk or volunteer with us for a community that provides opportunities for children and adults of all ability levels, a community that provides resources to help people live, work and connect in their neighborhoods, and a community that embraces all of its members.

So thats it for today, not much more to say … I did add a new countdown counter to the site that I found, I thought it was better than plain old ‘vanilla’ one I had. Hope you like it!

article on via