Starting 4th week

Hello all,
Welcome to my first post of what I hope to be many on the way to my first marathon. I plan on running my first timed (and only) 26.2 miles on October 10, 2010. 10-10-10 in the Portland Marathon. I hope by keeping this living reminder it will help me stay focused and maybe help anyone else planning on running their first marathon; or any timed distance event for which you'll be training.


First a little about me. I have been running/jogging somewhat consistently for about 4 years now. I include jogging there because I'm not sure what constitutes running. I try to pace myself at about 8 min/mile on all my runs over three miles. I have no formal training or coaching in running and never competed in any organized race before this years St. Patty's Day dash in Seattle, WA. I highly recommend this race for a fist timer as it was a lot of fun. Although, I have no other fun to compare against. I say that I run "somewhat" consistently because of my career. As a Merchant Marine I am out at sea for long periods of time and usually have no cardio training what so ever. This makes it tough to get back into the swing of things, but getting out on the road is something I cherish after getting off the ship. So I'm an on-again off-again runner who likes to run, but got into it primarily to lose weight.


I want to run Portland to push myself and accomplish something that I thought was only for those super intense born athletes. You know the type; the ones that lapped you back in middle school when you had to run the timed mile in gym class. As a "husky" little boy growing up, I thought distance running was something only geeks did because they were too scrawny to play "real" sports. These are probably now the same geeks that smirk as they blow by me on their 8th mile and my 2nd. Back to the motive; running Portland will give me something to reflect on and be proud of forever. And the accomplishment will be mine alone. I always played team sports and always felt like someone else on the field was the biggest contributor to our success, this time it'll be only me. I enjoy knowing that I will decide the outcome of this contest. Don't read into this that I plan on "competing" my first marathon, I simply want to finish without stopping.


So into the now: I completed 5 miles today; time: 40:14. Avg. pace was 7:57/mile. I was pretty satisfied with this time as I didn't stop once; not for a quick break at a crosswalk or at my turnaround which I normally do. I usually run with my Garmin Forerunner 305 to keep my pace, as I've read that one of the biggest mistakes first time marathoners make is starting too fast. So I'm trying to keep my pace right at 8 min/miles or just under as I would be thrilled to hit that pace in Oct. I felt good after today, a lot better than the 7 miles I did on Saturday (4 days ago). Tomorrow I will run 3 miles and I can't help but push a little harder than my normal pace, as 3 miles blows by quick now.


Oh, probably should include that I'm following the training program on marathonrookie.com. I would recommend this web site to any runners as it has some good free info.


I look forward to keeping this blog going and hopefully keeping my training and your training going as well. Hopefully we'll have some good runs and some good laughs and after Oct. a lot of pizza!!!


Good runs and stay safe,
Brad