Marathon Cramathon

I have long held a view that one's garmin is the equivalent of one's spirit animal, or a reflection of your runner psyche.  My garmin is the basic 210, a bit old and beat up and grudging in its praise - if everyone else's says it was a 7:40 pace, mine has to say 7:43.  If the race was 26.2 my watch will say 26.1...you get the picture.  So it has been no surprise that of late the battery is so burnt out that even fully charged it gets to 8 miles then with one small warning blip goes black -flat lines - stares at me blankly and then will not go a step further.

That has closely mirrored my own running style since December.  The slightly recovered burnt out posterior tibial tendon would give its own warning burn around 5 miles but the most I could limp on would be 8 miles max.  The sad announcement that I would merely be watching Boston was made in February, with heavy heart.  My 50th Birthday Party was going to be a DNS! Despite the disappointment, running has been fun with Poppy, but somewhat lacking in purpose, just rehab only and enjoying splashing in the streams at Castle Rock.

Until last week...suddenly I was able to limp from 8 miles to 10.  Then this week I managed 11.5 on Monday before the foot gave out - like a crazy intoxicated runner I of course tried something longer on Wednesday, 14 miles later I was still standing.  I looked bizarre of course as my burnt out garmin was on one wrist and a cheap shocking pink plastic monster stop watch was on the other arm.  Like some black marketeer or used watch salesman I had been stopping at lights and trying to pause them both simultaneously - but dang, I needed to know time and distance!

14 miles is still only about half of what I need to run, but maybe if I inch up a mile or two for the next 3 weeks and tuck away one 20 miler not too close to race day, I might just be tempted to jog my 3rd Boston for the fun of it.  First on my list - invest in a more generous Garmin, one that wants to keep step with me for more than an hour, doesn't prevaricate before every run by searching the skies for satellites for ten minutes at a time and tells me something more encouraging than the last one. I always tell folks you can't cram marathon training, but in this case let the cramming begin!