Portland Marathon

I’ve done a crazy thing. I’ve decided to run another marathon. I ran my first last year after some pressure from a co-worker to run a half. I decided to run last years Bellingham Marathon after my training progressed beyond 13.1 miles. This year will be different though. Last year I ran the marathon almost exactly 13 weeks after starting to run. And when I say starting to run I mean it. I was not running at all before that. My first run in that 13 week period was two laps around a local high school track followed by desperate gasps for oxygen and long drinks of water. During those 13 weeks I was forced to stop running for two weeks due to injuries. So now I have 231 days or 33 weeks to properly train. I am focusing on strength training now with some running mixed in. A little prevention to try to prevent the knee injuries I suffered last year.

Last year my goal was to finish. This year I want to break 4 hours. That would be a 9:10 per mile pace average. Shouldn’t be too hard. Last years pace was 10:02. This feels slow when I run, but spread out over 26.2 miles it is a chore!

I chose Portland because I can ride the train from Bellingham all the way there. No driving afterwards will be nice. I can kick back stretch out and sleep. Plus I have family in Vancouver right across the river from Portland.

Okay so it gets worse. I have an even bigger goal. I want to become a maniac. Not sure if I will be able to pull it off or not, but depending on how my training goes I might try. To become a marathon maniac I would have to run three marathons in three months. There are other ways, but I think three in three months would be the easiest.

So I am definitely planning on Portland and I have my eyes on Chelan and either Seattle or San Antonio. San Antonio would be awesome because it is a rock and roll marathon with live bands playing throughout the course. Plus the weather would be so much better in San Antonio in November than Seattle weather in November. However paying to travel to run a race is not exactly in the budget.

So what do I get if I become a maniac you ask? Just a T-Shirt and the satisfaction in knowing that I have done something that most have not. When I think of how hard a marathon is I just remember that I actually had a harder time finishing the Deception Pass Dash kayak race.

Oh gotta go the white coats are here to take me away to the inSane AsyLum.