Oops, it's been a while since I've posted, eh?  I'm slacking in my old age.  Well, I completed the Deadwood Marathon soon after my last post.  I did write about that on its own page soon thereafter, and if you haven't read about it, you can do so here. 

I ran another race yesterday.  This was a 5 mile race in Bloomfield NJ, and it was my first 5 mile race in a bunch of years.  I knew my old PR was rather soft, and I figured this was a good time to beat it.  But what really sold me on this race was the fact that Bill Rodgers would be there.  I remember seeing Rodgers in the New Haven 20k Road Race a couple times when I was a kid, and me not being a real afficianado of running, he's one of the few famous runners that I was aware of.  He's 61 years old now and he's long since stopped seriously training.  But still, I thought it would be fun to try and beat him.

So, could I beat a 61 year old former champion?  And would it really matter if I did?  Well, I did end up beating him.  I finished in 37:09, and Rodgers was 37:30.  So not only was it a big new PR for me, but it gives me something else to hang my hat on as well.

In other news, Maggie starts a new job on Monday.  I'm happy that she won't be unemployed any more, and I wish her lots of luck!

This Sunday will be my 11th marathon.  This one is in Deadwood, South Dakota, and it will be my first attempt at a trail marathon.  But hopefully it won't be a very difficult trail.  At least it had better not be.  I've tried a couple runs on the trails at South Mountain Reservation here in north Jersey, and I've found them extremely difficult.  If the marathon was anything like this, it'd take me six hours to finish it.  If I don't break an ankle first.  Again.

I have checked the weather for Deadwood this weekend, and of course the prediction is for rain.  I seem to be making a habit of running races in the rain.  Well, after doing the entire St Louis Marathon in the rain, I should be used to it.  And frankly, I'd rather it be rainy than 90 degrees with blazing sun.  So I'm not going to complain about it.

In additon to the weather and the trails, I may be slowed down by my back.  Last weekend, I got a quick and inexplicable pain in my back that lasted for a couple days.  I don't know what I did, but I must've pulled a muscle badly.  I don't know how I did it.  I seem to be almost back to normal, maybe with just a little bit of lingering soreness now.  I don't know how this will affect me this weekend as I try to run 26.2 miles.  But I'm sure it won't be helping my time. 

So given all the conditions, what's my prediction for my time?  I can't guess much better than I did in St Louis.  (Prediction: 3:50.  Actual: 3:50:04).  I'll guess 4:05 this time.  We'll see what happens.

In other news, I was accepted to the New York City Marathon this year via the lottery!  This was my third year attempting to get in this way, and I guess the third time's the charm.  The policy is that if you get rejected three years in a row, you automatically get in on the fourth year.  So I knew I'd be getting in either for 2009 or 2010.  Well, now I know that it'll be 2009.  I'll be looking forward to that race on Nov 1st.

Oh by the way, my birthday was a couple weeks ago, soon after my last post.  I'm not one to make a big deal out of getting a year older but sheesh.  Where did all the years go??

I completed the St Louis Marathon about a week and a half ago, and it went as well as I could have hoped!  My finish time was 3:50:04, which is almost exactly what I predicted for myself in my last post.  I wrote up a Race Report, which can be viewed here, or by clicking the link on the left.

This coming weekend, I'll be running the New Jersey Half Marathon.  I've already run the Full Marathon here, so I had no interest in doing that again, since it wouldn't help me in the 50 state quest.  But I've only run one Half Marathon, and that was nearly 3 years ago.  I know my time there is very soft, so I've been meaning to run another HM for a while.  I had regestered for one last year, but I broke my ankle the day before the race, so obviously it never happened.  Knock on wood, I'll stay healthy for this one, and get myself that new PR. 

In other news, now that Spring is here, we've been busy buying various new items for the outside of the house.  So far, we've purchased a patio set and grill.  Next may be a new lawnmower.  This is no surprise to the other homeowners out there, but owning a house can be an expensive thing!  Still, we enjoy the house and are happy that we bought it..