Running for Your Life: Down to the Wire

I just liked Lonesome George on Facebook. I would DEFINITELY follow him if he had a Twitter account.

The reason being, Lonesome George, the Galapagos tortoise, is about one hundred years old, but he doesn't look a day over forty. He just keeps motoring along. Imagine his tweets ... You can keep Lady Gaga, Alec Baldwin, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lawrence. Lonesome George ... Now THOSE would be some awesome tweets.

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This week I'm channeling Lonesome George -- and the inside track view characterized by Redon's "The Chimera," an exhibit in MOMA's eerie "Exquisite Corpses" show -- because I've seen a podiatrist who, I think, has wisely told me that if I can afford to rest and not run these last few days before the Boston Marathon it would be best. That way the inflammation that is present in my left forefoot (likely a nerve that is being pinched by an overactive ligament) will have the chance to calm down enough so that chances are the pain will be much more bearable next Monday during the 26.2-mile race than if I were to keep to a tapering-training regimen.

So for the next week I'll be taking anti-inflammatories and icing the pain spot (it doesn't hurt or show much surface swelling but it causes some pain when pressed) every night for an hour or so until Monday. I'll trade the treadmill for the elliptical, do calf and foot and toe stretches, work the weight machines. But my next run won't be until I'm out with 27,000 other runners at 10 a.m. Monday, April 16 at the 116th running of the Boston Marathon.

If you're there in Boston that day, here's a sense of what I'm hoping to do:
7:45 min/mile for 10 miles: 11:18 a.m. (10 mile marker)
8 min/mile for 12 miles: 12:44 p.m. (22 mile marker)
8:30 min/mile for 4.2 miles: 1:30 p.m. (Finish Line)

That target pace would put me at 3:30 or under (the approx. times reflect how long it will take from the official start and the time my race group will cross the starting line), a time that would be fast enough to qualify for the 2012 running of the New York City Marathon. That's my goal. A week from today!

Next: Running for Your Life: A Look Back