I haven't written in a few days -- mostly because LIFE has been happening. (That's a good thing!) Anniversary celebration went great on Friday -- discovered a nice Irish pub near the Rice campus called Brian O'Neills. Fun.
Now, explanation for the title of this post..
On January 15, 2006, all four of us (Cheryl, Ash, Brooke, and myself) will be running VERY long races. Cheryl and the girls are officially signed up to run the Houston Half Marathon (13.1 miles). I am signed up to run the full Houston Marathon (26.2 miles) once again. We have a day-by-day running plan on our refrigerator that takes all four of us through the next 18 weeks until RACE DAY. Can you believe it?
My personal goal is to see a "3" at the beginning of the time clock when I run across the Finish Line. This year I'd like to finish the course in under four hours. That means 3 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds or better (hence Project 3:59:59 get it?)
In training for this marathon (my 2nd) I'm going to be stirred by memories. For one, the date (January 15, 2006) is the date that my dad would have turned 60 years old had he not passed away back in 1998. 60! Wow, I cannot imagine what Dad would have looked like at 60. Now I get to run on HIS birthday, and I'll be thinking of him every mile.
I'm also going to be thinking about Laurie. The last email that I have from Laurie is one when she congratulated Cheryl and me for completing last year's marathon. In her email she said that completing a marathon is something everyone should do at least once in life. I told her that she could totally do it too -- she'd just have to train for it.... So, yes, now I have to go through another "last time I did this she was here" gut wrencher. Wow. Seems like ages ago.
So, I'm running with a unique purpose and spring in my step this season. (1) Remembering my dad. (2) Remembering my sister, and (3) trying to get my first sub-4 hour marathon done. My guess is that (barring injury) the first two will propel me to accomplish the third.
greg
2 comments:
Can I come down again to cheer you all on?
Love, Mom
PS I will navigate w or w/o Bruce.
Greg,
I came across your blog through a Blogger web search on "Houston marathon"; however, I've read much, much more than the marathon post and am not quite sure what the proper words to say other than "humbled" at what I've read.
I'm looking forward to sharing the same emotions that your wife will with your daughters. Sunday evening, my 10-year-old daughter and I went on a 3.5-mile brisk walk as a slow and steady buildup for her to attempt the half in January herself.
We'll brisk walk it at a minimum, but will certainly try to run and/or jog as much of it as possible.
I'll be very interested in reading about all of your training successes and trials on the way to that special day of January 15, 2006!
-Jon
Post a Comment