Coming Up...

Lately, my running has not been where I would like it to be. Unfortunately school has decided to take the lead in priorities mainly because it is hammering me into submission. Every day is some huge paper, project, test, homework, you name it, there's a good chance I have one due that day. That being said, I don't have a lot of time for much of anything else. Everyday is just a cycle. Wake up at 4:30 am and ride my bike 25 minutes to work. Sit for the next 3 hours only hoping the laundry hurries up so I have an excuse to get up from staring at whatever I'm studying to walk around. In my break I try to get a quick run in. When I say quick I don't mean quick from an ultrarunner's point of view. I mean quick from a weekend warriors point of view. Then it's off to class for the majority of the day where my brain is thoroughly battered, beaten, and flooded with information. Then homework or study time. If I'm lucky, this time is short enough to get a run in. Otherwise, it's bed time which is usually around 11 or 12, then I get up the next day praying the weekend would get there sooner. I'm so close to graduating, I got my cap and gown yesterday but I've still got a month and a half.

Enough complaining. This weekend is the Marine Corps Marathon. I would be a little more stoked on it if my dad were running with me, but injury has prevented that. I'll be flying solo, but I think I'll try my hand at a Boston qualifying time just to make things a little more interesting. Since I haven't had a huge amount of time for the long runs that I enjoy so much, I compensated by making the runs I could get in quite a bit faster. Whether that is enough to quicken my marathon time by 28 minutes, I don't know but I guess we'll find out. I did the math on my qualifying time (3:10:00), and figured out that I have to run 7:35 miles (or something like that). I got on a treadmill to see what that felt like. It felt manageable but we'll see. I have no sense of pace (except for 10 minute miles because it's just a really chill pace most of the time) so I'll try to hang with the 3:10 pacer for as long as I can.

The week after that is the Potomac Heritage 50k which is a trail ultra. I am pretty stoked on that one because it's in D.C. and it just seems like a lot of fun. Plus Keith Knipling will be there, and he's fast, so I'll be interested to see how that goes. More on that later...