This Saturday the Novice-trainees go their longest to 20-miles. Ya, Intermediates hit the taper and get the luxury of taper and cut-back to 12-miles, but Coach says you Intermediates should not neglect your comrades and even though you could easily run the cut-back on your own, be their to show your support and encouragement for those Novices that still have to go the 20!
Your Coach is taking it upon himself to set up 3 aid stations at 45th (6.2-mi), 41st (6.8-mi) and the park bench at Grand Blvd (8.4-mi), plus the usual suspects do their stops at shelters at Burr, Colfax and Ave B, so you should be set to go out at least 9-miles or fully 10-miles if you know and/or recall the vagaries of the routes that take you N onto the Levee trail and back into Wicker Park and back to Grand, or the solo route L of Grand into Wicker Park to the 10-mi turn-around at the SE-corner of the sand volleyball pits at Wicker Park. Take your pick of the route, but you will have supplies at Grand Blvd to assist your effort. I will be out there later on bike to find you and carrying all kinds of stuff to assist any in dire straights (pun intended because that's a favorite band of mine).
There will be no written "inspiration" this week and I will just save it for words to be spoken in person before we start at the Cline-75th Ave start line. I have run a lot of marathons and did the training to become a Coach and just when I thought I understood everything, I came across this individual that touted this product that he claimed would make me run my best. Being skeptical, but hurting badly in terms of injuries and such (you all know about that), I said what the heck and downed the pills before my CARA 20-miler. And miraculously, I ran nicely and didn't succumb to the injury devil and it gave me hope I might just be able to run Chicago to a FT that I had trained to. I will elaborate more on this and can offer you samples to take before you embark on 20-miles if you think it will help you. So, if you are not there at the briefing, you will miss your ultimate chance to run your best!
OK, a bit of a tease here, but seriously, my inspiration comes in words spoken before we start, so if that is important to you, then be there. If supporting your fellow runners is important, then be there. We have gone this far together so far, no need to change it! Hope to see ya there - all o you, even that crowd that seems to always start early. I understand some of those early starts because of other commitments, but this run is a commitment to your training group.
20-miles is a long way to run for training, 26.2 miles for the marathon even longer. Your gonna be out there for a long time, so what does it matter if you start a little later, as long as you run together, and in support of my rationale, the weather has been very comfortable that we don't have to start in the wee hours of morning when it is dark. I want you all there and I need you all there, or I just might give up running altogether! This is it, this is what it is all about, even if you are an Intermediate (like your Coach) and technically in taper.
Make sense?
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