Back to the Scene of the Crime

Well I suppose it's that time of the year again for my one yearly post.  Not that too many people are still reading, but if you are, Hi!!.

So the title basically sums up what I'm training for. After my last post from almost  a year ago gushing about doing the NYC marathon, I had the NY experience stolen from me by Hurricane Sandy. Or maybe the title refers to the fact that New York Road Runners association stole another $300+ from me for the privilege of running in their race after they had cancelled the race, only 3 days prior to the race taking place.  Did I mention that I had traveled to NY before they cancelled it? Well technically, I found out while I was at the airport about 20 minutes before I was supposed to board the plane, but by then I had already paid for my non refundable hotel, my last minute flight had ridiculous cancellation fees which made the airfare a write off and a nice $80 cab ride into downtown Toronto during rush hour (ain't doing that again) to top it all off.  I figured I would go anyways since I had already spent so much.

Not that I'm bitter as I really wasn't ready to run a marathon at that time. I had put some training in, but not nearly enough to really race a marathon.  I had resigned myself to basically running the race at my long run pace of about 9 min/mile which would have put me just under 4 hours.  Oh well, even with that conservative goal, it was still a letdown to not do the race.

After a winter of putting on some weight and not doing anything training wise, I decided that I should at least start preparing to redo NY and not just have to settle for a long run pace marathon.  So that's where I am today.  Week 6 of an 18 week training program.  Trying to do Pfitzinger 55 mile 18 week program. Not sure what marathon pace I'm aiming for. It'll be 3 years since I've run a marathon and 4 years since I've raced one so it's going to be a relearning experience for me.  I'm fairly certain I should be able to do 3:30 if I keep the training up.  As to how much faster I might be able to go, I really don't know.  Time will tell.

Some Pics from NY.

Statue of Liberty

World Trade Center Memorial

Times Square

View from Empire State Building

Rockfeller Plaza
(Day before Presidential Election hence the red white and blue)