April Week 2 - Here we go . . .

[Sweder]

7 days from the big day and I'm feeling pretty relaxed.
I've trained hard at times, been frustrated by injury and travel arrangements that conspired to throw me off track, but as we enter the final stretch I know I've prepared better for this race than any other.

OK, that may not mean much when you look back at my record.
2003 FLM saw me rise from the couch in January and hobble painfully through the last 8 miles in April, dragged to the finish by pure stubborn will and the thought that my beautiful Daughter, my inspiration, waited for me at the finish, some 4 hours 31 after the start.

2004 FLM brought a more concerted effort, with some serious training in February and March. I ran the race all the way, knocked 13 minutes off my previous time and felt a million dollars within 10 minutes of the finish.

For 2005 when asked I've said that 4:10 would be a respectable target.
But since then my Wife has told me that this will be my last full marathon, at least for a while.
That changes things. Weather factors aside (if it's a scorcher all bets are off) I want to give this run the full works, to, as the tacky American Army recruitment TV ads say, 'be all I can be'.

Time the Avenger and the Mall waits, with inexorable patience, for me.