Week one was a "weak" one!

"Hello" I yell into the canyon, and no one replies. So if you are reading this A) why? and B) - thanks and hello for real!

Week one is done. It was a "weak one" not in performance, but that I knew it wouldn't be too much of a challenge. It is sort of like going to an amusement park as a kid. You wait seemingly forever in line to get on the roller coaster. Finally, you get on and they lock you in to the ride. It starts out "click, click, click", and you're off! You get excited, but you know the really strong stuff is still pretty far off.

So starts my Chicago Marathon program. I did a total of 24 miles this week. It is sort of a step back from what I did before my program began. But these miles are for real. Now I know I am "locked in to the ride". I just need to make sure I stay on the tracks until it returns back to the platform!

Coasting mostly on the treadmill, I had plenty of time to reflect and ponder about a few things relating to the journey. Here are a few things I learned this week:

Thing 1). There are a lot of runners in the world! Not that you see them all of the time, but I find myself constantly engaged in conversation with them. I had an opportunity to play in a golf scramble this week with a couple of players I didn't know. One was a runner. We spoke most of the round about running, speed work, the races we ran, and virtually all things running. It seemed a lot more interesting than the golf we were playing.

Thing 2). Running on my treadmill is a lot more fun when the sound works on my plasma TV. Watching the local stations at 5 AM is a real drag. I prefer Robin Meade on Headline News' Morning Express telling me to "wake up sunshine!" Without sound, it is not the same. We have four remotes for this system and none of us have a clue on how to get the sound back on. I wonder if the running pioneers had it this rough! I am relegated to watching "Sunrise Earth" on HD Discovery. Great picture, but my five-miler was spent watching a loop of a giant moose swimming across a lake. Yikes! (I didn’t even know a moose could swim)!

It gets worse. I normally take outstanding care of the things I own. The exception to this, I guess, is my Ipod (s). My old-school first one was dropped - it broke. I sent it off to the Ipod doctor (there really is one), and they told me to buy a new one. So I did. It lasted about three months until I wore it in a five-mile St. Patrick's Day Run in St. Louis. Who knew that the Michelob Hospitality Tent offering free beer at the end would erase my memory. I went home, left it in my jacket pocket, washed the jacket, and found it in the dryer. It too was done for (it didn't take the Ipod doctor to provide this prognosis). My third one, the shuffle, was technically free. I bought it with my Amex rewards points. Free unless you consider the 25K of spending it took for me to earn the points. Anyway, never really fell in love with this fella. No screen and no clue of what song was up next. Notwithstanding, it shorted out last week on the treadmill while I was watching the moose on my muted TV. See how the tragedy came full-circle. If this is the biggest obstacle I encounter, I will take it.

Thing 3). I learned that my marathon journey will cover a total of 588 training miles over the next few months. I have 24 down and 564 to go. That is a long way to go! I read in Runner's World about a first-time marathoner who paid herself a dollar for each mile she ran. Then, the day after her race she used the money for shopping for something for herself. Maybe I could by a new Ipod and pay some kid from the plasma TV store $100.00 to come out and push the buttons that will make my sound come back on....

Thing 4) and thing last for this week - my fitness level in regards to distance running is perhaps better than ever before. I can play golf, have a few too many beverages, eat whatever I want, and still hit the road (or the mill) the next morning at 5:45 AM. I suspect as the roller coaster starts climbing a few of the "big" hills closer to Chicago, playtime will be over!