Day 1 of the blog....Day 5 of Week 3 of training...

Here it is 3 weeks into the training program and I have something to actually talk about. I found out yesterday that I received a slot on the Run to Remember team for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. So let the training continue and the storytelling begin!

Some background first...

My father was diagnosed with colon cancer in early spring 2005. He "moved on to the next room" as a result of this in February of 2007. In the last few weeks of his life, he had the assistance of the exceptional people at the Alliance of Community Hospices of Louisville . My family was blessed with their help and doubly fortunate in that he was able to partake in what they termed "home hospice". The thought there is that the patient is best served in their needs by being at home with the family provided that the appropriate levels of care can be provided. It wasn't too long after he started in this program that he passed, but we are glad they were there even for that short time.

What charity are you running for, Rob?

I am running for the National Hospice Foundation through their Run to Remember program. This program supports the efforts of the Foundation and also allows charity runners to commit 50% of their donations to a hospice organization of their choice. For my run, I am going to direct the 50% of the funds to the hospice group that assisted my father so well.

So what makes you think you can run a marathon???

Last year I started dabbling in some running, biking and swimming under the auspices of doing an Ironman-length triathlon by the time I am 45. Unfortunately, I allowed training to get interrupted at times and so in the spring, I took up running again, just to get off my lazy ass.

A less-than-epic performance at the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge induced me to get back into gear for real with the running. A couple of weeks later, I find myself thinking "hmmmm...the Chicago Marathon is do-able..." Mind you, this isn't because I was training so well and consistently. Let's just chalk it up that inspiration was upon me!!!

So I did some research the next day only to find that lo! I was only 4 days away from being able to kick into Week 1 of the 18 Week Novice 1 Training program on Hal Higdon's training site. So off I went.

Let me be absolutely clear about this one - I am not out to nor am I able at this point to set any land-speed records. Gimme until next year to start getting quicker. That said, I am averaging a 10:15 mile when "running easy". As long as I can get the marathon done in less than 5 hours, I'll be satisfied.

How's it going so far?

I can't complain. I'm liking the running. I'm pleased with the routes that I have set up on the USA Track & Field site and I don't have to get up at 4am to run - yet!

Tomorrow is what I'll call 3-6 day (week 3, day 6). It's a step-back week, so I am only running 5 miles for my "long run". Shouldn't be too bad.

Are all your posts going to be this long?

Probably not. But there had to be a primer, eh?

So there it is read and (hopefully) enjoy!