Looking foward....

Wow!! It has been a LONG time since my last blog update!  Pretty shameful considering that I have 27 followers of the blog now.. I think there may have been a dozen the last time I posted.. I am sure that the new followers must have thought.. what the heck.. this wasn't worth it.. or is this guy still alive.. well there is nothing like the present for me to turn over a new leaf and look forward and get back to posting.

Well, as some justification to my absence, I am spending more time doing my podcast (earlymorningcruzin). I am really enjoying doing the podcast and I feel more at ease speaking into a microphone than I do typing..

Chapter 1  -  Why?

Tomorrow starts a new chapter in my running life. It is day one of 19 weeks of training that will lead up the to the Huntsville Rocket City Marathon .  This will be my first and maybe even my last marathon. In some sort of way I guess it's a bucket list item that I feel I need to complete. Ok, maybe that is a bad reason for this "quest" and you might be right... but either way the race is still 26.2 miles.

My History with the race

Going back to by first years as a high school runner, I have never had the desire to complete or compete in a marathon.. it wasn't something I thought I needed to accomplish in order that I be a complete runner. This isn't anything that anyone has said.. it's something in my own mind.. In fact, most marathon runners are the humble runners.. because they know the total involvement that it takes to step across that finish line.

The Huntsville Marathon has been around since 1976. I was a Junior in high school.. I remember a classmate of mine ran it that first year or the next. I remember thinking he was crazy to do such a thing! :-) During the 70's there was a huge emphasis on marathons, not 5 and 10K's. Runner's world would drive me crazy because that is ALL they used to cover.. unlike the, stealth zero body fact models on the cover these days,  during those days it seemed it was always a marathoner like Bill Rodgers or Frank Shorter (my heroes).... and that kind of bugged be that if you weren't interested in the marathon it was like.. "what are you running for?"

My Training

I will be following the Hal Higdon Marathon Intermediate I plan. It starts off pretty easy but as the race date approaches it looks like it will be taking to to me.

My Training Partner

My training partner is also named James.. He is the one that thought up this bucket list in the first place.. It's nice to have a partner to go through all this  with...

Tomorrow is the day one... GO FOR IT!