One tenth of one percent...

Yesterday was a step-back long run--14 miles. It was a good run--I've been giving myself "water breaks" every mile after the first two on my long runs, but yesterday I went 3, and then took a water break every 2 miles instead. This gets me more aligned with the stops at the Chicago Marathon--for the first 17 miles, the aid stations are approximately 2 miles apart each (details here, and the full course map is here if you're interested).

During the run, I was listening to an older Phedippidations podcast about first-time marathoners. One statistic jumped out at me and has stayed in my mind...only one-tenth of one percent of the US population has ever run a marathon. Wikipedia quotes the US population estimate for 2007 at 312,403,000. That means, on average, well under half a million Americans (312,403) have ever run a marathon. That makes me special--or will, on the afternoon of October 7th.

I know a few marathoners in person, and many more by reputation (blogs, podcasts, etc.). Whether they've completed a marathon in 2 hours or in 2 days doesn't really matter to me--it's an elite group that I am proud, excited, and humbled to become a part of.

This week--a few shorter runs, then 20 on Sunday (have I said that enough yet???). We'll see how that goes--I'm planning on a 10-mile out and back loop, and then laps around a roughly 1-mile path around our house. I figure if anything goes wrong, at that point I'm no more than half a mile from home. But there's a lot of miles between now and then.

More later...