Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Marathons number 109 and 110

This weekend has me attending marathons in both Jackson, MS and Mobile, AL.  And while other are lamenting the potential cold weather in Jackson for the Mississippi Blues Marathon (high of 32 and sunny) I am focusing on a few other things.  First of all, I will take chilly over muggy which is what we had last year at the event. Second, I look to the fact that the course has been changed to take out some of the less enticing strips and remove last mile hills.  Less sweaty in humid weather on an easier course!  Now that is positive thinking!  (Mobile's weather for the First Light Marathon the next day is slightly warmer with calls for the same warming sunshine.  I actually think that sounds mighty fine for a marathon).

What I am looking forward to this weekend is testing myself.  Having never run back-to-back-marathons, this will be something new for me, which gets harder and harder the more marathons you run.  And when I was thinking about what number of marathons these would be, I realized I was running  my 109th and 110th lifetime marathons on 1/09 and 1/10.  That is definitely something I hadn't even tried to plan and thought the coincidence was quite without cans.  (Or "uncanny". Your call.)



I also get to seem my friend Sam Felsenfeld as he is embarking on marathons number 2 and 3 of the year in his quest to run 60 for Operation Jack.  I wrote about Operation Jack back in August but here is a chance for me to bump it back up.  I hope you will take the time to give Sam's mission a look-see.  It is quite admirable indeed.

As my three-week "break" from traveling draws to a close, I am happy to get moving again and test the racing waters as I push myself towards my biggest challenge yet of running 204 miles straight at the American Odyssey Relay this April.  I have sincerely enjoyed sleeping in my bed all this time, knowing exactly where I was every time I woke up but now is the time to begin new challenges.  I look forward to having you join me.

2 comments:

PunkRockRunner said...

Have a blast! My next full is the Surf City Marathon on 2/7 and I'll be running about 10 more in 2010 (including the Ironman).

If anyone can shine on back-to-back marathons it's you.

Oh, you won a hat on my blog (not sure if you've checked it lately)

Safe travels,

Ron

Ross said...

Hi Dane,

Kelly would have turned 21 on January 9th.

I ran my 9th marathon on 01/09/2005on Kelly's 16th birthday.

Interesting that you are on 109,on her birthday, 5 years later.

Maybe you could dedicate 9 miles of your run to her on Saturday.

All the best to you in 2010.