Classic Inspiration XXIII

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill

Classic Inspiration XXII

Only when I face frustration and use it to fuel my dedication [do] I feel myself moving forward.

John Bingham

Week 8

Sunday February 22 through Saturday February 28

Sunday -- Club Challenge 10M (59:50)

Monday -- 40 minutes treadmill

Tuesday -- 60 minutes treadmill

Wednesday -- 60 minutes treadmill

Thursday -- 50 minutes treadmill

Friday -- 50 minutes treadmill

Saturday -- 18 miles (2:20:00)

RunD(F)MC

By now you know that April 20 I am running the 113th Boston Marathon for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the twentieth Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge -- the DFMC. Our website is www.rundfmc.org.

But "RunDFMC" strikes me as perilously close to the famous Run-DMC (website: www.rundmc.com).

So before their lawyers shut us down, I think we should declare one of their ballads our theme song. (To get in their good graces.) Which one? Run's House. Feel me?

Whose house? RunDFMC's house!

NYC 2009

I just registered. You should, too. Apply here.

But first, Boston! See you April 20!

Classic Inspiration XXI

The easiest period in a crisis . . . is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision — whether to fight or run away. . . . Crisis can indeed be an agony. But it is the exquisite agony which a man might not want to experience again — yet would not for the world have missed.

Richard Nixon, Six Crises

Week 9

Sunday February 15 through Saturday February 21

Sunday -- 22 miles (2:50:00)

Monday -- 60 minutes treadmill

Tuesday -- 50 minutes treadmill

Wednesday -- 60 minutes treadmill

Thursday -- Rest

Friday -- 60 minutes treadmill

Saturday -- 19 miles (2:20:00)

Shakespeare on Racing

Theories on racing abound. Some runners sit and meditate before racing. Others whip themselves into a frenzy. Some run cold, some run hot.

Here are two Shakespearean antagonists, each expressing perfectly one of the two extremes.

For those who run with ice in their veins, channel the righteous avenger:
Macduff: I have no words; / My voice is in my sword . . .

For those who run with their hair on fire, channel the tragic hero:
Macbeth: Lay on, Macduff, / And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

Who, may I ask, are you?

Week 10

Sunday February 8 through Saturday February 14

Sunday -- 16 miles (2:30:00)

Monday -- 70 minutes treadmill

Tuesday -- 60 minutes treadmill

Wednesday -- 50 minutes treadmill

Thursday -- 70 minutes treadmill

Friday -- Rest

Saturday -- 20 miles (2:40:00)

Week 11

Sunday February 1 through Saturday February 7

Sunday -- 20 miles (2:30:00)

Monday -- Rest

Tuesday -- 70 minutes treadmill

Wednesday -- 70 minutes treadmill

Thursday -- 50 minutes treadmill

Friday -- Rest

Saturday -- 8 miles (1:20:00)