Marathon Dreams

When the days grow short and the leaves on the trees turn yellow, red, and brown, then runners can't help themselves -- they dream of running a Fall marathon.

Not that it suddenly occurs to the average runner to compete at a such a distance. No, these marathon dreams have been in the works for months. Mileage has been upped. Long runs have been recorded in the log. Injuries have been avoided (we hope), and carbos have been loaded. So the journey of hope and high expectations begins.

Yesterday, Lowell hosted the Bay State Marathon, and two runners from my club competed. In two weeks, several more of the team will compete in the Cape Cod Marathon (in and around Falmouth), which also serves as the New England Championship. But others have bigger dreams, and are getting ready to tackle the NYC marathon, which takes place Sunday, November 4th.

(New York is a world-class marathon, of course, but this year it's an even bigger deal because on Saturday Nov. 3rd, the day before the "real" NYC marathon, New York is hosting the U.S. Men's marathon trials for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.)

As everyone probably knows by now, Lance Armstrong will be returning to the NYC marathon, after his famously painful (and successful) run last year. Lance runs to promote his Livestrong foundation, and gutted out a sub 3:00 last year, despite enduring excruciating shin pain.

Also running to support Livestrong will be Tom Burkly (NNHS Class of 2002), a member of the Tigers XC team, who went on to win an NCAA Championship in Ultimate Frisbee with Wisconsin.

While Tom is probably not aiming for a sub 3:00 marathon at New York, my co-coach at Concord Academy, Karina Johnson, has a realistic shot to be racing Lance in Central Park. Johnson, a graduate of Colby and former assistant coach at Williams College, is fresh off an admirable 36:25 at the Tufts Health Plan 10K in Boston, and is hoping to run under three hours for the first time.