Welcome to my training blog!

Hello hello!

First of all: welcome and thank you for your interest in my quixotic quest to complete the 2009 NYC Marathon. I am glad to have you along for this journey.

Now, a confession: I have never run a marathon.

I've been running non-competitively since I was about eighteen, but never before have I had the desire to train for such a race. Actually, it's always seemed like a fairly bizarre thing to do. Especially considering the fact that the poor soul who completed the first "Marathon" promptly dropped dead once he reached his destination. Don't believe me? Well, I read it on Wikipedia, so it must be true! (Did you know the Greeks defeated the Persians at the battle of Marathon? Well, neither did I; but hopefully I won't croak when I cross the finish line. I'm certain the New York City Road Runners frown on that sort of thing.)

Truth be told, I'm a confirmed skeptic of the whole phenomenon of "extreme sports". (That would better be written in caps with multiple exclamation points: EXTREME SPORTS!!) Something about the whole fad strikes me as symptomatic of a culture in decline. Ancient Rome, anyone? That said, endurance running has certainly gotten its hooks into me. No doubt about it.

Apparently, I'm not alone. What are to make of the fact that the number of individuals who complete marathons each year has increased steadily since the turn of the century; from 299,000 finishers nationally in 2000 to 382,000 in 2005? (Source: The Marathon Method by Tom Holland, citing www.marathonguide.com) Is it some sort of gender-neutral, yet fundamentally macho addiction to endorphins? Is it bragging rights? Or could it be that so many people have found that endurance running offers a profound form of moving meditation; an opportunity to celebrate what the human body was built to do.

In this blog I will be giving some information about the specifics of the training schedule that I will be following, but hopefully not so much detail as to bore you, Dear Reader. For those of you who wish to follow along at home, I will be using the "Intermediate Marathon Plan" from the aforementioned The Marathon Method by Tom Holland; an enormously encouraging and accessible primmer on the art of the 16 week marathon training program.

Of course, these introductory remarks would be incomplete if I did not acknowledge the deeper reason that I will be running the NYC Marathon. If you have found this page, then you probably already know that I will be running as a member of the Multiple Myleoma Research Foundation Team. The MMRF is the largest private foundation dedicated to finding a cure for multiple myeloma. My mother, Anne Linford, was diagnosed with MM in 2000 and passed away in 2004.

I do this run for her.

With every step of every run I carry her in my heart. With every kilometer I log toward this goal, I also celebrate my Uncle Bob. I hope, in some small way, to help in the struggle against MM...

...and may we all be mindful that every moment in a healthy body is a blessing and a celebration.

If you'd like to make a donation for the run, here's the link:
http://www.active.com/donate/2009NYCMarathon/TeamLinford

Thanks again for joining me on this journey.

Forward!