Stick a Fork in Me

I’m done – I’m still far from 100%, I lost 4 weeks of training due to an achilles/calf injury, and I know I’ll have trouble at this point building back up to a 20 mile training run without risking further injury, never mind the marathon. I officially switched my entry from the Philadelphia Full to the Philadelphia Half Marathon. It’s something I hate to do, but I don’t want my 2nd marathon to be a limping jog to the finish and risk being sidelined indefinitely afterward. I knew I was taking a gamble when I picked an aggressive plan on a minimal base back in August. I had assumed I would have plenty of steam left from my May marathon training to carry into Fall training – bad planning on my part.

The good news is I can at least throw in a few races between now and the end of November that I would have otherwise missed. I’ll probably do the Run the Bridge 10k, a cool race that crosses back and forth over the Ben Franklin Bridge, and happens to benefit the special education school that my sister in law is Principal of. There are not a lot of 10ks around here, and this will give me a chance to redeem my crappy time from last year (I would love to hear from any other local people looking at this race). And I may throw in the odd 5k, depending on how the leg is feeling.

So I will be running the Philadelphia Half Marathon on November 23rd. On the bright side I won’t be completely wiped out afterward, and after recovering from that I can start winter base building. I really think I would like to make my target race a marathon in the fall next year, but I still may throw my hat in the ring for the NJ Marathon in May, just for kicks and to redeem myself mentally a little bit after bailing on Philly (not to mention I live like 20 minutes away). So good luck to the Philly Full people – I will be one of those obnoxious half marathoners hogging the early water stations and bailing out at 13.1 mark! Woohoo – I think I’ll eat all of the food before you guys get finished too! See you on the 23rd!