Some Things Considered

Ever wonder how your life would be changed if you left earlier or arrived later than your actual arrival or departure?  I was thinking that when I was heading to the airport last Sunday. I was thinking back to after my senior year in high school. My friends and I had gone to the Ocean City, Maryland for beach week before (or maybe it was after) Graduation. On the last day, I caught a ride with a buddy to go back home to do something or other. It turns out that the other group of people I was hanging out with took their rental house security deposit and went water skiing. I missed out of that because I left early. I was bummed when I found out (apparently I still am because I was thinking about it 20+ years later). Anyway, something like that happened again this past Sunday. I got to the airport a little early as I wasn't sure about security lines, etc, when I saw my oldest sister in the security line ahead of me!  Now, my sister lives in Kansas and doesn't often come out this-a-way. She was here for some event nearby and was only here for the weekend. I could not even calculate the odds of this happening and the events that needed to occur for this to happen (for starters, my business trip was delayed a week). We couldn't even have planned it better if we tried. Anyway, that was really nice that I got to see her. 


Oh, I ran some this week too. I ran 6 miles on Monday, 4 miles on Wednesday, and 8 miles this morning. My pace was very good too. It seemed that the run last Wednesday really got my pace going. I ran well into the 8-something pace monday and Wednesday, and something like an 8:25 for the 8-miler this morning. I was really happy with that. Now, my right plantar hurts a little bit when I stand up and start walking (since I was flying today, I hobbled a bit funny when I got off the plane). I'll try to (re)start my effort to run on trails or other soft surfaces on weekends. 


Speaking of trails, considering that although my speed is coming along, and that I seem to be able to keep the speed up on longer runs, I'm not sure I should sign up for a race (read: marathon) this fall. Mostly due to my  plantar fasciitus. I fear the long runs required to train will prevent it from healing. However, that doesn't preclude me from taking on the distance this fall on the Bull Run Regional Trail. Since the trail goes on for 20+ miles, I could easily go out 13.1 (and then back) and end up running the full marathon distance. I'm not sure I'm going to do this, as I'm just mulling it over in my mind (also still thinking of an official fall marathon as well). 


During my run today, I was also thinking of how many people run 20+ miles when they are *not* training for a marathon**. I know *I* haven't run 20*** unless I've been marathon training. If I were to do the marathon distance trail run this fall, it would be the first time I've run over 20**** miles without training for an official marathon. Hmm... should I do that?


Another part of me is wondering if I can qualify for the Marathon Maniacs.  To qualify for the Bronze level, I need to either (1) Run 2 Marathons within a 16 day time frame, OR (2) Run 3 Marathons within a 90 day time frame.  Of course, this is totally opposite the paragraph above (that is, *not* training for an official marathon to avoid further injury).  Oh well....


Notes:
** The number 20 has now appeared 3 times in this post. You should use that number to play the lottery!
*** 4 times!
****  5 times!
*****