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Last night I completed Again to Carthage, the sequel to the legendary novel Once a Runner, both by John L. Parker, Jr. I’d seen Once a Runner mentioned in quite a few places, but have yet to read it since it’s currently not in print. Used copies are highly sought after and can currently be found used on Amazon starting at $244! I purchased Again to Carthage from the Buffalo Fleet Feet several days after reading a good review on it in the November issue of Runners World. At the time I asked one of the owners if he had a copy of Once a Runner & was informed he did, but that it was currently lent to a friend. After finishing Again to Carthage, I might have to head back and see if I can get in line to borrow it.

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(I stole the idea to gripe/praise companies from my friend Greg’s companies blog entries.)

Yeah, I’m making a list alright. It’s not the good type of list though… Unfortunately for Amazon, TigerDirect & Buy.com, they’re on it. Normally the companies names in the previous sentence would be links to their sites, but their recent tactics don’t deserve the business I might send their way if someone followed the links.

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This past Saturday, I headed up to the Niagara Falls Curling Club for a night of curling. I was fortunate enough to be able to go with three groups of friends – from grade/high school, college and work.

Jeff & John trying to sweep a stone into the house.

Additional photos are viewable in my photo gallery.

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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. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been debating for a while whether or not I’d run the 2007 Niagara Falls Marathon. The training I’ve been doing over the last three months has been both physically challenging and time consuming. There have been runs that I struggled through. I would hate to not beat my brother’s 2005 Buffalo Marathon time of 4:09:21. While I felt great at the end of the recent 2007 Rochester Half Marathon, I distinctly remember a time along the canal when I told myself there was no way I’d run a full. I won’t lie – being the only one in our group wearing a half marathon medal after the Rochester marathon made my feat a little less sweet.

But then there were the positives to consider – I shaved nearly seven and a half minutes off my half marathon time of last year. I felt great after the half. There is a full month of training time left. A full month of training time means I have 1/4 of a typical full marathon training schedule left. In less serious thoughts, I have a fair amount of free time to fill until fall archery season starts (October 13th). Oh, and I spent a lot of money on a new pair of shoes.

So I told myself I’d see how the scheduled 18 mile training run went. I’d done an 18 mile run last year, but I stopped half way through to watch some of the Bills game – I don’t even count it. I figured this 18 mile run would give me a good feeling of if I’d survive a full. I have a couple friends running the Niagara Falls half marathon, so I knew I’d at least do that, but based whether I’d run the full on my 18 mile run results.

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