Man's Best Friend

There must be a better way. It kept repeating... the temptation to quit after running with Tory on our 1 mile loop with the house Siren (as in Mythology) luring us... "quit and come home, says the Siren", right in the middle of the tough uphill section.  I remember the day my neighbor pointed me to another route to run. We could go 2 miles OUT. Then we'd HAVE to run 2 miles back!  Brilliant!

By spring of 2004 Tory and I were up to 6 miles as our longest run and regularly running 4 miles. My weight was down from 195 to 155!

It was a fateful day in April that I went into work and was confronted by a couple of my co-workers. "Do you want to run the Marine Corp Marathon with us in October?".  Marathon... I know that's more than 6 miles right?  With a "you can do this" encouragement, I said (in a REAL CONFIDENT VOICE..not).."uh, yeah, sure".

When I got home that night I looked for a marathon training plan. I Googled "marathon training plan".  First hit was http://www.marathontraining.com/ .. duh.  It had an 18 week schedule but the marathon was farther away than that.
http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon/m_sch_2.html

  But.. there was also a build-up schedule so we started at week 13 of that schedule which, combines with the marathon training to lead to MCM on October 31st.  Perfect! Simple!  Except I had never run 8 miles before which was required at the start.

http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon/m_mile.html

(good tips here too!)

The next week I ran my longest run of 8 miles around the Asee in Muenster, Germany while on business.

So we were all set. Tory and I built up mileage together. We ran roads and trails and longer and longer.
But as the Carolina heat started, I ran more solo. It was too hot for Tory and long distances.

In September, Tory joned me more and built up his mileage. He ran his first half marathon distance in late September!

On October 31st, I ran my first marathon with my buddies. We all finished!  It was the most confidence building moment of my life!! Finished in 4:32:02 and didn't walk any!

That was one of the most significant moments of my life and I owed it ALL to Tory.  Without him I'd still be a couch potato!  So I dedicated my medal to him.   He looks proud!