(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 4)

I won’t lie to you - I’m sitting here Saturday evening and I am just starting this Sunday Paper.

It’s been a busy week.

Usually I’ll have something written at some point during the week and then by this time on Saturday I’m just putting the finishing touches on the post.

But I just didn’t have much downtime this week, and when I did the different topics I have jotted down for future posts just didn’t feel relevant this week.

So, since the thing that dominates my mind these days more than anything else is running, let’s lay out exactly what I’m planning with my running this year.

If you’re confused about what I’m doing, I can’t say I blame you.

I’m in the final weeks of training for one marathon and just decided to run a second, so if the two things have gotten mixed up for you, it’s understandable.

The decision was that I’ll be running the Chicago Marathon in the fall. More on that in a moment.

Because the first priority is the Wilmington Marathon, which is coming up fast - it’s on February 25.

I started the marathon training in November, after the BAA Half Marathon. I drew up a 14-week program featuring what I think was what I did best training for the two Boston Marathons in late 2021 and April 2022.

So I’m in week 10 of 14, and completed a 16-mile run yesterday (that’s the picture you see above), and I have an 18-miler next weekend and a 21-miler in two weeks before dialing it back for the final couple of weeks of training. (How’d yesterday go? Miles 13-16 were tough…but I guess I’ll take it as a positive that the first 12 miles felt pretty good. That’s a lot of miles.)

You’ll remember I ran Wilmington as a half marathon last year - and I ran it surprisingly fast. (For me, that is.) After the second Boston Marathon I thought, I wonder if a flatter course would make a difference in my marathon running time the way it did with my half marathon time.

So that’s what we’re aiming to find out in Wilmington in about a month.

Chicago is just a chance to run another of the World Major Marathons. My friend Kevin is the one who convinced me I could run a marathon - he had started running half marathons and every time I entered the Team Framingham Boston Marathon lottery he was my biggest cheerleader and then very supportive of my marathon training throughout. (You may remember we ran Wilmington together and then the BAA Half together.)

He wanted to run Chicago in the fall for his first marathon…and I can’t pass up the opportunity to train alongside him (well, in spirit, not literally, since we’re 900 miles apart) and run the same race.

Chicago gets things going early, so we’re all registered for the race, which doesn’t happen until October 8th.

That will be almost the exact same training timeframe as my first marathon - that rescheduled October Boston Marathon in October of 2021. So I’ll see what worked this time through and then customize that training period.

I’m excited to do those early morning summer runs again - I loved that part of summer running. (I can’t run that early in the winter - it’s just so cold and dark.)

We’re both raising money for Ronald McDonald House, a great charity, and Team RMHC (Ronald McDonald House Charities) so far has been really excellent. It looks like they have a nice race weekend for runners too, so that will be something to look forward to.

I think I feel strong and ready for next month. I’ve been getting a little leg crampy after my long runs the past couple of weeks, but I don't think I’ve been as sore for as long as I was a year ago.

I will, of course, tell you all about how the race went…and I’ll continue to keep you posted on how the training is going.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*I guess this is the first of a few times this year I’ll be sharing Matt’s new music. He released a song from the upcoming album on Friday. As always, it’s worth your time. I think someone needs to tell HBO or Netflix that this song needs to be played during the end credits for some kind of science fiction show. Enjoy.

Notes

*I am doing Super Bowl squares as a part of the fundraising for the Chicago Marathon. If you’re interested, let me know. It’ll be one square for $30, 2 for $55, and 4 squares for $100. Thanks!

*Let’s also not overlook the fact that the gap from February to October provides the opportunity for something else, running-wise. It would be cool to find some kind of half marathon right in between there for the training (Wilmington was perfect for that last year during the second Boston training), but the summer months are not exactly packed to the gills with half marathons.

*I told you when I did the album listening all last year - there are giant holes in my musical history knowledge. I’ve been learning and I guess I know that because there are fewer times that I hear something and my mind is blown…but when Jeff Beck died it reminded me that there is a lot I don’t know about that 1960s-1970s England scene. It seems that everyone hung out with and influenced everyone else and I’m always surprised to learn of the connections between those people. Rod Stewart, for example, was always just Rod Stewart to me. I never thought about his early career, so his early work with Beck came as a surprise.

*Maybe you knew a lot of this running information I wrote about today because you already follow the running Instagram. Maybe you’re like, “I wish I already knew this.” You can follow the running Instagram too! The social media links are below. Thanks!