The race looms

This will probably be my last post before I leave for my Boston journey on Wednesday and I need to start with an apology. Work and family life have been so frenetic of late that I am badly behind in my blog reading and I am sorry I haven't had a chance to catch up with everyone's news. I have some time on my hands now and will make amends.

Boston is now looming very large on my radar screen and I am well and truly into the detailed planning for the day. Ewen said I would need to rise early to make it to the start of the race in Hopkinton and he is not wrong. My bib number is 7224 and that puts me in the first wave of runners starting at 10 am. This will mean I have to be at Boston Common at 6 am to catch one of the official buses to the Athletes' village near the start. As I will be staying in a hotel in outer Boston I will probably need to set the alarm clock for 3 am or some similar bewitching hour to get ready in time and make it into town.

The pre-race guide makes fascinating reading, not least in conveying the organisational puzzle that underpins the race. I know the BAA have had a lot of practice (this is the 111th running of the race) but to read about the sheer scale of logisitics behind the race, the transport arrangements, medical facilities, pre and post race functions, massage facilities, drink stations, the media arrangements, and so on on is a marathon in itself. The race will televised live throughout Boston and I think nationally throughout the US; 500,000 spectators are expected to line the course, and the field of 23,500 is the second largest in the history of the race.

The race will start at mid-night in Australia Monday 16 April. I have no real idea how I will go but should come in under 3 hours 30, which means I should finish just before 3.30 am Tuesday 17 April. For the utterly bored and sleepless my progress can be tracked on the Boston Marathon website (www.bostonmarathon.org). Just punch in my bib number of 7224 at some spot on the site and hey presto and you should get a read out on some dehydrated and fatigued runner from Downunder struggling to make it up Heartbreak Hill at about the 30k mark. If you do see that, don't bother with the rest of the story. Just go back to bed. I'll be thinking of you.

So there you go. My dream will soon become a reality. The Boston Marathon first caught my imagination when I read Jim Fixx's Complete Book of Running in the early 1980's where he gives a great description of running the race. The book will come along with me to Boston, as will Stephen Lacey's wonderful poem and some other special things from people close to me. What will also come along for the ride will be the many, many stories, of my great friends in Blogland. Meeting so many new friends both virtual and in the flesh through my running has been one of the great revelations of my life. At its core, too, I have my family to thank for putting up with this slightly obsessed runner who has wanted to fulfill this goal for so long. And it will come true.

My preparations, as noted in earlier posts, have not been great. I haven't been able to get beyond one long run of 30k or thereabouts and no week has gone further than 75k in workload. Out of concerns with this adductor injury, I have done no speed work at all - not once, zilch! (Tess - thank you for your comments about taping the adductor injury. When you first raised this I mentioned it to my physio and just last week we had another detailed discussion about the pro and cons of taping it. I am seeing my physio for one last time before the race this Tuesday and we will make a decision whether to tape or not).

On the positive side, though, I have had over a year of solid running to fall back on. And I was very pleased with my run this morning with the Saturday group, which was over very tough, hilly terrain in the Isaacs, Mt Wanniassa and Mt Taylor area. I pushed all the hills hard and felt great, really strong and fast. This was just the 'mental' run I needed with just over a week to go to the race.

I felt so good at one point at racing to the top of Mt Wanniassa (what a brute) that I thrust my arms into the air ala Rocky and let out a loud yowl. I also did a couple of chin-ups on a survey marker for good measure. But as my running buddy Maria had much pleasure in telling me the only thing that responded to my yowl was a dog in the distant reaches of the Tuggeranong Valley, probably on heat, and probably drooling at the mouth that it had received its best offer for a couple of weeks or so!

Frankly, I might get so lonely in Boston I would be happy to have a dog howling for me. And it will be me doing the drooling!