My Man: The Maniac

While the rest of those fools taking off tomorrow morning to run 26.2 miles were training in the cold, my man was taking it easy on the treadmill at the gym watching Monday Night Football.

He was planning to run only the half. No need to overexert himself. Except the Tall Drink of Water on Friday decided to just go ahead and sign up to run the whole thing. I expect men in white coats to bust down the door at any second and commit him.

As for training, he's run 118 miles (according to his Nike+) since January, including two, 14 mile long runs. Most marathon training programs have runners doing many longer runs, including 18, 19 and 20 milers.

According to a basic training program I just looked up, he should have run 435 miles in the last 18 weeks.

Please, TDW scoffs at 435 miles. He says "YES!" to 118 miles.

I'm of course fascinated by all of this. I may have even had a part in encouraging him to run the whole thing. (My motivation is having someone to track and root for at different spots along the course.) But honestly, toward the end, I tried to be the voice of reason for him.

To reason - reason being, You're ill prepared and are going to suffer unimaginable pain - he would say, "It doesn't matter how much I train, the last 10 miles are going to suck anyway."

What could do I then but offer my support. "I'll go with you to get your new bib number!" I said.

TDW will run with Rob tomorrow, who has been very dedicated in his training since January. I'm curious to watch how this plays out.

Will Rob leave TDW in the dirt at mile 16? Will TDW persevere despite his inadequate training? Will Rob crash and burn while TDW somehow pulls through in the clutch? Ahh... Good stuff.

He and Rob are running at a 9:45 minute mile pace tomorrow, which will put him at the finish line at 4:15 if he can keep with it. TDW ran the Pig in 2004 in 4:23 without much training that year either. I think with Rob there, he can do it.

I imagine things will start to get interesting around mile 16. We already know he can hang with Rob for 14 miles because they did the two 14 milers together. Beyond that is uncertain. Those long, ugly last 10 miles on Eastern Avenue is where the Pig made him suffer the first time.

He couldn't even walk it was so painful. "I walked after a water stop to get a drink and it hurt more to walk than run, so I just decided to keep running."

Here come the men in white coats...

I'll be blogging from my camera phone along the way for CiN, so do Click Here for photos of bloody nipples, tears, cheering and the sun coming up in Cincinnati on Flying Pig Marathon morning.