Holy Hartford, Batman

I wish I could explain to you all how crazy the last 2 weeks has been for me. I can sum it up by saying that my first 2 weeks in Hartford have not involved bed for more than 3 hour spans. And I am tired.

This last week in particular was brutal. And through it all, I have not had time to do my physical therapy. After my rocking run last weekend, this weekend was a very different story. The exhaustion, the stress, the lack of time, is starting to take a toll on me and I am not sure how I will be able to reign it in this week to come.

Today I ran only 11.5 miles out of what was to be 17. About mile 9.5 my knee started to hurt. I gut out running until Mile 10 and then walked a mile and a half home. I'm deciding not to get too upset about it because if I am going to break, heck, at least I am breaking at mile 9.5 instead of mile 4 now. And the truth is that despite knowing that my PT has been dropped for 2 weeks (including foam rolling, which is even worse), my initial pace, which felt remarkably comfortable, was down at 8:45/mile. I can't help but think things really have turned a corner, but with an incredible amount of diligence. And that is something I cannot afford to let slide. My career is very important to me, but long term to permanant damage to myself needs to be the first priority.

I am not sure I have much else to report. I can tell that time is ticking away but I am starting to find comfort in it and get over the terror of knowing I am going to run a marathon. It's Boston, afterall. It's the dream I had many many many years ago when I stood in Natick with my parents at one of the worst moments in my life, smoking my brains out and knowing something had to change. I think that was 1997... so to have kicked that idea off some 11 years ago now and have it still never quite wash out the way some grand ideas tend to... yeah, I am ready. It will be such a stark contrast to that April day those 11 years ago. I am excited that my parents will be making the trip back to celebrate it with me.

On that note, I am keeping it short and sweet. I need to have some dinner, get on that freaking foam roller and then settle down to sleep... this might me my best nights sleep for a few days and I need to start banking some Zs.

More next weekend, I promise.