Oh, I'm Halfway There...

...OOOOOOHHHHH LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!  (Pony, on the slim chance that you're reading this, that was for you.)  I'm a few days behind on the blogging with no good excuses.  Forgive me.  I actually find it harder to blog than I do to run.  I don't know why.  It doesn't take nearly as long, it's much less physically and mentally demanding, and there aren't any outside forces working against me (e.g. the 16" of snow that was dumped on New England over the past two days.)

I ran seven miles tonight.  A few weeks ago seven miles was the longest I had ever run, but seven miles has become a (brisk) walk in the park.  It was pretty uneventful, but I do feel the need to share one thing before I move onto something a little bit more exciting.  I don't get tired after seven miles (at the pace I'm running), but I do get bored when I'm running that far on the treadmill.  To pass the time I think I've broken down those seven miles into just about every possible increment using the metrics that are available on the treadmill's control panel.  28 laps. 910 calories. 9,800 steps. 4 commercial breaks.  63min 35sec.  Pair them together (with one metric in the numerator and another in the denominator) and there are 240 different combinations.  I think I've been through them all.  That is how bored I get!  And I've come to realize that it actually doesn't help pass the time at all.

Right at the five mile mark, with 18 mins and 10 second left to run or 260 calories left to burn, is usually when my boredom really sets in.  By that point, I'm normally watching the 100ths of a mile tick by (every 14 steps).  Well tonight something interrupted the monotony of counting, which you would think is a good thing, but it was not so.  At first I thought someone dropped their water bottle.  After a second thud I thought someone was performing STOMP in the aerobics room.  I looked; it was empty.  Was someone running in Lugz?  I looked to my left to find out.  Not Lugz, Asics, but I'm convinced they had cement soles.  Everyone in the gym could critique this kid's gait.  It was like a metronome that was turned on for the simple purpose of annoying everyone.   I contemplated quitting short of my goal, afraid the stomping would drive me mad, but luckily the kid tired quickly and slowed to a walk after approximately a half mile, and I returned to counting.

I warned you that seven miles wasn't exciting.  And now I must warn you that I'm at the five mile mark of blogging and getting restless, but I'm determined to explain the title of this blog, and there's no one with cinder block shoes marching in place beside me, so I'll push through.  I'm seven weeks into the 18 week training program, not quite halfway in that regard, but I did pass a different halfway marker this weekend.  On Saturday morning I bought a one-way ticket on the commuter rail for $5.25 and headed out to Wellesley.  It took me 20 minutes to get there on the train and 2 hours and 12 minutes to run the last 14 miles of the Boston Marathon route back.  At this point in my training, I'm very happy with that performance.  I still have a lot of work to do, but I completed over half of the marathon on the hardest part of the route.  Granted, I reached Heartbreak Hill after only seven miles opposed to 20, but I also did it without hundreds of people cheering me on and without the music of the BC band inviting me to the top. I'm now halfway there, but you're going to have to endure this blog for at least another 11 weeks.