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This past week I ran the Niagara Falls International Marathon. This was my first marathon & I’m extremely happy to say that I completed it in 3:38:45.9!!

Katie, Greg, Myself & John

Additional photos in my Photo Gallery.

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It’s hard to believe it’s coming this weekend, but the Niagara Falls Marathon is a mere two days away. A couple people have asked me “Are you read?”. Am I? I think so. All the training says I am & I’m starting to realize how large of an event the race will be.

Last night I ran my very last training run – 2 miles in 14:30. With this and the last couple around 7/8 miles, I’ve earned for more when done. It’s going to be hard to slow from the pace I was at last night (well at least at the beginning of the marathon…), but now that I’ve come down from my long training runs, my body wants to run that speed now. I need to drop around a minute and a half a mile from that pace. There is no more running before Sunday.

The weather for Sunday is a high in the upper 40s, with a low in the high 30s & a chance of morning rain. I still haven’t decided what I’m wearing up top – ideally I’ll just wear one shirt, but if it’s absolutely pouring and miserable out, I’ll go with my waterproof running jacket. If it’s low 40s to start, but expected to warm up, I’ll start with a long sleeve cotton shirt over a running shirt & ditch it after a couple miles. If it’s expected to stay in the low 40s, I may wear two running shirts (tried this out last night). I have a pair of cheap gloves and a headband to start with and throw away either way. I’d prefer to be worrying about having to wear sunglasses or not…

The only other thing I have to figure out is what headphones I’ll be wearing. I’ve been training with a pair of over-the-ear style, but sometimes in high wind they get pulled out. I brought a pair of Skull Candy Smokin Buds, but the left ear doesn’t fit as nicely as I’d like.

I still have to edit my playlist on my iPod & plot out my planned splits,but other than that, I completed the last preparation by heading to Bed, Bath & Beyond today to get a salad & pasta serving bowl for the guests I’ll have this weekend (John, John’s brother’s girlfriend & hopefully Greg!).

While New York State’s archery hunting season began this past Saturday, I was watching my brother for the weekend and not able to hit the woods. Fortunately, I was given Monday & Tuesday off from work & the weather cooperated enough to allow me to head out Monday.

I’ve been hunting for around five years, but hadn’t gotten a deer until just last year (when I shot a button buck on Veteran’s Day of archery season).

This year I’d been telling folks I only have two things on my mind for this fall: marathon training & hunting season. I expected the pursuit of both to take up most of my fall, but I took the deer below at ~15 yards Monday with a Matthews Switchback bow:

Additional pictures can be found in my photo gallery.

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Technically, it’s 1 week, 6 days and counting to the Niagara Falls Marathon, but I meant to write this yesterday and “1 week, 6 days and counting” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as a headline as “2 weeks and counting”… Regardless, I headed out for a 12 mile run Sunday. I was watching my brother all weekend & a little afraid I either wouldn’t be able to do it at all or stuck doing it late Sunday night, but fortunately my mother found a friend to watch him for a couple hours and I was able to get it in.

The weather was perfect for running to start: low to mid 50s. Half way through it felt like it cracked 60 – running the entrance/exit to Evangola State was hot!

A couple things went wrong for the run. None of them were major, but I am concerned about one – while making pancakes Sunday morning, I dropped the (sealed) package of pancakes & attempted to catch them with my foot before they hit the floor. I did manage to catch the package with my foot, but my attempt to kick it back up was foiled by the bottom overhang of the kitchen cabinets (picture a blocked punt, except replace the charging defender with a piece of immobile cabinetry). <begin sarcasm>Luckily it was my weaker left foot, as surely my powerful right would have destroyed the cabinet.</end sarcasm> The only thing that resulted was the equivalent of a scraped knuckle on my middle left toe. If toes have knuckles, then it wasn’t the equivalent – it was the knuckle. It didn’t bleed at all, but I could see the skin peeled back. I placed some Body Glide on it & it didn’t bother me during the run at all, but has irritated me a little more than I’d like since. I’m going to keep it under a band-aid and Neosporin.

Other than that, I forgot to charge my GPS watch, which died shortly after the first mile. A couple hundred feet after it died, my cell phone not only popped out of the pouch on my Amphipod RunLite running belt, but it landed perfectly in front of my (non-injured) right foot for me to kick it down the road for ten feet or so. It was scratched up a little, but managed to survive both the fall and skid across the pavement.

It was a little strange “only” running 12 miles. Next week’s long run is an 8 mile run. My body is not used to these distances, but all marathon training plans cut back a couple weeks before the race – this is called the taper. Not having to squeeze in a really long run is nice though – there’s not much light left these days after work & bow hunting season has started. My body feels great today – I look forward to my 3 mile run tomorrow.

Saturday I hit the road for the longest run of my marathon training plan (also the longest of my life) – 20 miles. I finished in 3:14:26, a 9:42/mile average pace. (more…)