Mellow Week

Hi! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had a great week. Lots of family time, lots of great grub and lots of easy, fun running with the gals. Let's see, here's a quick recap of the week as far as running goes.

Christmas Eve: 4 miles pushing the baby in the jogger (avg 9:00 pace).
Christmas Day: REST :)
12/26: 6 miles at 5 a.m. w/ the gals (avg 8:11 pace).
12/27: 6 miles again, 5 a.m., same partners (avg 8:16 pace)
12/28: 0 (had to leave for work at 4:30 a.m. and did not get home until 7:50 p.m.).
Today: undecided, might run 6 w/ the baby in the jogger, might just rest.

The gals and I decided to start marathon training the week of Jan. 7 and then take only a 2 week taper before Boston. I'm good with that.

A great marathon debut story about my coworker, Brian:
While at work yesterday I ran into him after a carstop. His primary fitness "expertise" is triathlons. However he does race distances up to the half marathon (his PR set in '06 is 1:15).

This guy is so nice and very humble, despite his talent as an athlete. Even though he wins a lot, I still feel amazed each time I hear of his latest race (usually through other coworkers).

Anyway, he asked how I did at the CIM and when I told him his eyes got really wide and he seemed so excited for me, (it was kind of funny really). He shook my hand and gave me a hardy congrats. Then he said he was so inspired by my marathon success over the last year that he decided to run the CIM too! I did not know he had run it.

I asked him how he did and he kind of looked to the ground almost disappointed and said, "2:59." My jaw dropped. AMAZING!

I know a sub-3 marathon debut has been done before, just not by anyone I knew personally. This just blew me away. I was so proud of him!

Anyway, he ran the first half in 1:20 and said he felt great up until the later teens, then he crashed and crashed hard. He said in retrospect his downfall was that he went out way too fast and just couldn't hold onto it. He is excited for his next marathon effort in the fall of '08. He opted not to run Boston because that's when his triathlon season is underway. Triathlons are his true love.

I felt touched that he said I inspired him to run the marathon distance. Me. Ha! I am nowhere in this man's league as far as running, yet I inspired HIM. I still have to laugh because it seems so ridiculous (but in a good way)!!!

Thanks for reading, just wanted to share.