A few years ago, I thought I would never be able to run again. Now I’m registered for a marathon in less than seven weeks!

Moving to Texas was the first bullet to the running habit. Even in the north, I had trouble running in the summer. In Texas, summer is most of the year. People here do run in August, but not many do it during the daytime. I would start running in the winter, and one year even managed to build up some distance — fourteen miles was the longest run I had in Houston. And then the second bullet: foot pain. I would get severe burning pain under my toes, possibly caused by neuromas? even when walking far. A running store put me into new shoes that really helped, and I settled back into the routine of running a few months a year.

But it’s had to stay excited about a sport when just as it’s feeling good again, it gets too hot to continue. I switched to biking, which is doable even in the heat. But I missed running. Reading about Emilie’s races, and seeing Psycho Ben do his own personal marathon got me wanting to train for an event. And so I signed up for the Pittsburgh Marathon, which is on my birthday this year. And then I got to work.

The first problem I had was that I had somehow developed plantar fasciitis last summer, nothing to do with running. The running store to the rescue again; I tried on several pairs of performance insoles, and found one that helped. Together with stretching and ice massages, I’ve been able to keep the pain in check. Now on to the training. The last time I did a marathon, I used a twelve week training plan that had me running six days a week, but the longest run was only eighteen miles. By race day, I had a painful hip and heel pain (other foot that time), and I didn’t feel that eighteen miles was enough to give me confidence in going 26.2. This time I am using an eighteen week plan for beginners that only has me running four days a week, and cross training on top of that. And it has an eighteen, a nineteen, and a twenty mile run. I realized partway in that it must be the same one Emilie is using. I like it; I have no injuries, and building up to running twenty miles is a huge psychological boost over eighteen miles, despite the small difference in mileage.

I’m trying to predict how this marathon will compare to the last. I was 29.9 then; I’ll be 48 (exactly!) this time. But I feel as healthy and strong as I did then, and I’m certainly smarter now. Or at least able to educate myself better. Last time I didn’t drink enough, and I don’t think I took in any calories during the race. I didn’t think I needed to since I never did when I was training. Now I carefully plan my fuel and water, and I can tell it makes a big difference. I didn’t take enough food for one 11-miler, and it was surprisingly tough. I won’t make that mistake again. Last time, too, I started out too fast. I met someone waiting for the start, and we ran together for awhile, but he was much faster. This time I will start off slow. If I want to speed up later, I will. Having access to so many online running resources is invaluable.

The one thing I can’t control is the weather. Last time, after a cold training season in Pennsylvania and Massena, the weather suddenly turned hot and humid, and I had to finish with temperatures in the 80’s. I started to feel sick toward the end and even threw up. The weather could very well be the same this year. But I live in Texas now, and I’ve already had a few very warm training runs, and I’m sure I’ll have many more. I’m hoping that will get me through any heat wave.

Anyway, the training is going pretty well. I am slow, because I just started running in late December and was cautious about building up speed before my ligaments and tendons got used to the pounding. That is frustrating, but my speed is increasing somewhat. This makes it hard to decide on a pace for the actual marathon. Hopefully by May I’ll have a better handle on that. I had great seventeen and eighteen mile runs the last two weekends. No matter how long the long run is, by the last two miles I’m ready to be done, but that’s purely mental. Having a running partner would help, but on Sunday when I was at about 16.5 of my 18 mile run, who should appear coming toward me on a bike but Ed, to ride me in. That was so nice. He was surprised I still looked so strong. I felt good. I think I have this.