Run Like Hell

Hard to believe four months of marathon training have gone by so quickly, but here I sit just a few days away from running the Cox Providence Marathon.

I've got one run left before the race on Sunday; I was going to do it tomorrow, but I have to be at an off-site thing in Framingham for work all day, so I'll run 3 miles on Friday. I feel pretty good for the most part. I've got the usual tightness in my IT bands and have felt some slight achiness in my right Achilles, but nothing I'm overly worried about.

Right now, I'm just watching the weather forecasts. At this writing, Weather.com is predicting a high of 73 and a low of 59, with clouds and a 20% chance of rain. Not too bad. Although yesterday, the forecasts were calling for temps in the mid-80s. By the time Sunday gets here, who knows what the weather will actually be? The race starts at 8 a.m., so I just hope it's cloudy and cool for most of it. Hopefully, I won't have a repeat of my Vermont City Marathon in '06 when the temps were in the '80s and totally kicked my arse.

Complicating things a bit is the fact that Deb is off to Chicago tomorrow for a six-day conference, so she won't be around until Tuesday. I'm driving down to Providence on Saturday afternoon, after coaching Lily's first week of kindergarten soccer and checking out Hannah's game. Deb's mom will take care of the girls until I get back on Sunday afternoon; after the race, I'm showering and jumping in the car to head right back. But I decided to take Monday off from work to recuperate, so at least I can chill a bit then.

The marathon itself seems pretty cool. This is only the third year of the event, which also features a half-marathon and 5K. Looks to be about 5,000 runners total. The course is fairly flat, with a couple of hills but nothing major. I'd love to set a PR and run a sub-3:40, but the weather may have a say in how hard I push myself.

Whatever the case, I'm gonna run like hell: