Knowing the Twocat Rule, I put off running until the afternoon when the computer said rain would have stopped - well, weather gods didn't check the computer and it was intermittent drizzle for my run, but a good 7 miler.

short boston report: i ran my 5th & last marathon, 5:48

long boston report:

Obsession – what is the weather on April 18, 2016 – warm, cool, wet, dry – this starts early, but gets more intense in the days preceding the marathon. First it’s 60 and cloudy – perfect, changing daily – this is New England to finally low 70’s at the start to head wind and 50’s at the finish. Such were the days before my final marathon – yes, truly my final.

I know I’ve said it before, but this time I mean it! Before I ran the NYC in 2013, I said that would be my last unless I qualified for Boston, but in my heart I knew I wanted to finish with a round number of 5 marathons preferably at the age 70. However, without a waiver in 2015, I ran number 5 at the age of 71. I had hoped to better my previous Boston times, but my lack of training resulted in a 5:48 finish, under goal 2 (6 hours), but slower then all other marathons, except my first.

If a marathon is fun, then Boston qualifies. First, it’s home territory and there are the cheers from friends and family, not just strangers.   Four times I saw friends or family: two unexpectedly at 9 miles (Ted & Mary Tyler) and 16 miles (from NE 65+ running club), and knowing that when I crested Heartbreak Hill, my cousins would be cheering me on at mile 22, and then rounding Cleveland Circle and seeing Henry at mile 23 – there are no words for that. Finally, I finished with a NE 65+ runner who kept me running the last 2 miles and caused me to sprint the last 0.2.   I didn’t want to be tracked on Running Ahead, because of my time and fears, but you folks are a hoot and I can never forget your support either.

And on the flip side, the lows – the ache in my quads and feet after the race, the miserable sick and dizzy feeling while walking up the hills in Newton and bad thoughts at mile 5 for which I forced my brain to think cheerful and light thoughts.

In 2017 on Patriot’s Day, I will probably rue this decision for a nanosecond until I remember that I have spent the year enjoying my runs and not training for a six hour adventure.

marj

Loved the report, Marj.  And did you really think we'd let you get by with the "don't track me" thing? 

Glad Dave is feeling better.

This morning, I ran in Saginaw while my wife had an appointment.  It was in the mid 40s and almost calm.  I did 5 miles at a 10:57 pace.  A bonus was that each mile was faster than the  previous one.

Way to go, tselbs!

Marj, I enjoyed reading your race report and loved not following you on the day of. The photo of you and Henry remains one of my "happy thoughts" when I get down. Did you wish you would have seen Mary Tyler more?  (heh heh)

As promised, I went to the rec. center this afternoon. I have taken to getting 45 minutes on this eliptical type machine that is more like a stair stepper but not really. I am unsure if I am doing it right because there is this little gauge with a little person and there are different little zone thingys. If you are doing it right, you keep the little guy in the green zone (I think). I kept going into the yellow zone but only once in the red zone.  My feet went numb at one point so I stopped what I was doing and shook my foot around. It worked. A little bit.

Then I went on to the bike to nowhere and rode 12.6 miles in 45 minutes. It was fun. I had it set to "intervals" and had a great sweaty sweaty workout.

p.s. On my way to Matoaka this morning I was lamenting the fact that I don't know how to "reach" some of these kids. One kid in particular, I was thinking of her. Last time she was lethargic and would not try at all. This morning I was thinking "How do you motivate a kid like this?"

To my great surprise and through no effort on my part, she was on task, alert and focused today!  It was so nice to be able to praise her sincerely for working diligently on her math worksheet today.  She has no intellectual problems and I think she will do well with support.

I do not normally work with her and she just happened to be in the math session I was sitting in on. It felt like a little miracle that this exact child for whom I was worrying on the way in today just happened to be there and doing well.

I was also rewarded with being able to help a little 3rd grade girl with "reading comprehension". We went over her test that she did poorly on last week. We went over all of her answers to the comprehension questions. She told me she was happy that she figured this out. I was happy too. We read each question and then "slashed the trash".  Meaning we read each possible answer and if we were sure it was wrong we slashed through that letter. Usually we came to two answers that might be right. I asked her which was the one that was "better" than the other. I told her to trust her first instinct. She would explain why she thought the other one was possible and I told her, "If you have to read a lot more into it to make it possible, it probably is the wrong answer."

Isn't that true of a lot of life's situations?

Great report Marj!!

I'm trying to keep up here, but the Internet at the campground over the weekend was slow and after my 34 mile bike ride Sat am I ended up back on the injured list!! I now have sciatica on the left side and it is screaming at me after working 16 hours today! Tomorrow just a mere 12 hour shift and my PT is squeezing me in for an appt Thursday.

why can't I stay off the injured list? I feel like I am so cautious restarting and building workouts - so frustrating!!

Nice report, Marj, and never say never, but I know what you mean. And we all loved that picture best, too.

Holly, it'll be fine. You doing the full three week taper? I considered but opted for two weeks so that last long run will be early this Sunday, before DS1's commencement.

Jlynne, you're going to take care of that cold windy weather before the 22nd, right? Although I remember Slo doing the full a few years ago in some beastly wind. I'm hoping that doesn't materialize... but, it's been kinda windy here (for us at least) so I'm getting somewhat used to it.

So... I guess I haven't posted in a few days. Ran 15 on Sunday, but just barely. 6 miles on Monday, and 5.4 today. We've been having cloudy sprinkly weather with some wind so today was a little chilly. Still much warmer than normal so I'm not complaining, and the sprinkles help lessen the fire danger so it's all good.