28 Days for 13 Grand

28 Days until Boston. The training is going well and I've got one more week of hard stuff until I officially start taper. I did a nice 8-mile time trial on sunday clocking in at 48:35 with half-splits of 24:30/24:05. Of course my legs were a bit fatigued but I still managed 7:30 pace. Ahh yes...taper. Quite the fun time of the training program. After all those weeks of hard work, the mileage cuts back and you to enjoy something you haven't had in a long time -- rest and recovery. Of course in the world of marathons there is only one distance in one discipline so hitting the taper isn't as hard as in the world of swimming. On the other side of things, there is no shaving down. :( As for my success in beantown...I'm thinking that sub-2:50 is entirely possible. As long as the weather cooperates and I stratergerize the hills, my training dictates that I can do this. One last thing...the bib numbers are up. I'm #3178. I was hoping to make it to the 2nd corral, but I'll be in number 3. I'll try to make sure to start up toward the front of it.

Quick side note. I was about 13 miles into my 18 mile run today when some guy running in the opposite direction says "hey." I stop and talk to him. I'm wearing a CWRU fleece hat and he asks if I went there. Turns out he graduated from Case in 1982 and is working in Lansing as an attorney. We talked a about the school and its lack of social opportunities. He lives near me so we may go out running together sometime. Small world.

Big 10 = Big Suck. Yeah the #1 RPI conference that sent 6 teams to the big dance failed to get one team in the Sweet 16. Lots of us took a bath on that one. The sad thing is all of the teams underachieved. Izzo has some work to do for next year. Also, in a nod to parity, all the Final Four teams from 2005 are gone -- MSU and UNC to GMU, Illinois to Washington, and Louisville didn't even make it. Of course we still have the team everyone loves to hate, Duke, and perennial contenders UConn. To borrow a phrase, I'm sucking on the good and have all four of my final four teams left in each of my 3 pools.

Anyone catch How I Met Your Mother tonight? It was an OK episode...hitting a bit close to home with the whole Ted's-girlfriend-is-now-living-in-Germany plot line...but it ended with Robin calling Ted at 2:00 am asking if he wants to come over. Yeahh.....wondering what will happen there.