Fun with Numbers!

I bet most of you haven't heard that since grade school math class! Except this time, its for real. Really. Honest. Loads of fun!

The Chicago Marathon is estimated to have 1,500,000 spectators this year. The average person thinks "gee willickers, thats a big number mister!" but lets put it into a number we understand! If we divide that by 26.2 miles, we get 57,251 spectators per mile. Now, divide that by 5280 feet (the number of feet in a mile). You get about 11. That means, on average, there are 11 people per foot of the marathon. I think that number is much easier to understand!

Time for more fun! If you travel from Chicago, through my home town, by my old dorm at Eastern Illinois, past my apartment in Lexington, and to Boston, its 1,440 miles. So far this year, I've run 1,414 miles. Add a marathon onto that and you're sitting at 1,440. Quite the journey from Chicago to Boston, but I don't think its a coincidence!

Also, just to make Jess a little more nervous: only EIGHT more days until Chicago! I don't have anything fancy to do with the number eight, but its a small number!


Regardless of the fact I've barely been able to run the past few weeks, I'm staying positive about the race. Every time I've run, my hip has felt great during the run. Its afterwards that is always the part that is bad. And everything is supposed to hurt after a marathon anyways, right?

No worries, though, I'm not being stupid. In fact I'm erring on the side of caution more than ever this week. I was really looking forward to a run today, but decided not to just because it doesn't feel perfect. I jumped on the exercise bike yet again. I'll probably do the same tomorrow and try running once or twice next week. I also have the go ahead to take the medicine that makes my hip feel better for a day or two before the race, although its not safe to take it long term so I'm on a break from it right now.

Also, every time I've gotten out to run recently, I don't feel like I've lost much fitness at all. I feel about the same as I did a few weeks ago when I run, despite the fact my legs feel weak compared to how they felt before when I'm not running. As long as they can carry me when I'm running, I could care less how they feel when I'm not!

When the race comes around, I'm planning to forget I've taken these weeks off. Wipe it from my mind! It will help enormously with my confidence, which is what I need most right now. I've lost very little physically these past few weeks; most of what I have lost is in terms of 'mental toughness'.

Back to work for me! I'm making a dent in my huge pile of stuff. The big projects are out of the way, and the load on my back is getting lighter!

-Doug