purpleshoe runs

So in the last month I did some globe-trotting (Australia! Vegas! Korea! and the most exciting, South Dakota!) saw some people I missed dearly, and had a ton of fun. When I’m in Brisbane for work in the next couple weeks I’ll upload photos…the internet here is too damn slow to bother. But for now, I wanted to get something in writing here to hold myself to it.

I don’t have any strong prospects for getting in a marathon anytime soon. For a while there it looked like I’d be able to get to LA in March and run there, but that’s since fallen through. I’ve been staring at the calendar with little direction for training, wishing there could be SOMETHING to get excited about.

And then last night after a team PNG-Mex dinner (it’s a thing now, and it’s not nearly as good as TexMex, but we sure do try) and a few too many Coronas (we can get Coronas here now! This is big!) my boss and I somehow ended up challenging each other to a half marathon face-off (insert cheese-tastic gesture from that terrible movie here.)

Obviously it has to be on the treadmill (don’t worry though, our gym at work has 3 treadmills so we’ll be duking it out alongside each other) and the date is set for February 18th. Based on his age (in his 40s) and the fact that he’s not a competitive runner AT ALL, we agreed on a handicap of 5 minutes and 2 seconds for him. (I did some creeping around on age-graded performances to find this number.) He’s already said he thinks it’d be a stretch for him to win (I smell sandbagging), but he was down for the challenge to finish it.

And me? I’m taking this as a challenge to beat the pants off of him.

I figure since I’ll be running from the comfort of a temperature-controlled gym with water/gel/whatever at my fingertips (but not having to carry it or stop/slow down for it) with no hills, there’s no reason why I can’t match my current PR (1:48:33). I don’t have any illusions about being in shape to run a REAL 1:48 right now, but on a treadmill I think it’s possible. I think I just might be able to get under that too, and that’s officially my goal: to hit stop before the clock gets to my PR.

Clearly I’ve got to bring my A game for this one, lest I be ribbed mercilessly by the guys I work with. (We’re a pretty laid back dish-it-out group. I’d NEVER hear the end of it if I lost to my casual gym-goer boss when they know I spend my lunch break on a treadmill most days.)

So basically, I’ve got a month. Since it suited me well in Philly, I’m not making a training plan. I will, however, start running some of those painful mile repeats again, and getting in some serious suffering on the ‘mill. I’m back at 35 miles a week, so I think I can jump into some intensity without too many negative effects (aside from the regret/horror that comes along with putting the treadmill at anything over 8.0 for a considerable amount of time…)

And just because I can, I’m running 26 miles on the my 26th (February 6th!) I won’t be able to do it all at once since it’s a work day (unless I got up at 2 am…) but that’s something I’ve been meaning to commit myself to as well. Just for fun.

So there you have it. February 6th, my legs get a marathon worth of miles. And on the 18th, I shall obtain some bragging rights with the boys at the office. Wish me luck!

Happy running.