... and out of the subway ...

Distance: 5 miles
Duration: roughly 48 minutes
Weight: 164 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: yes
Snack: no
Time: 6.30am
Weather: chilly

It has been a difficult week. The past two days (when I was supposed to run 5 and 6 miles) afforded no chance to run. Well, I could have run - at 4.30 in the morning through heavy rain, then work all day until ten pm and arrive home at 11. I want to run this marathon, I do not want to die.

A little disheartening news, my cousin will not be joining me. He discovered that his knee gives him difficulty after a few miles, and has decided not to risk injury. He is 20 years-old and extremely fit, I am 38 and have pains like that all the time (after last Sunday's run my left knee was in pain for two days) so does that make me a fool for continuing to work at this?

He's not my first cousin, he's a second-cousin, my cousin's kid. My grandparents are his great-grandparents. My grandfather was born with a club foot and early twentieth century (late nineteenth century?) medicine being what it was, the treatment was worse than living with it and his left leg was atrophied.

My brothers and I were never athletic, never played sports. Things have changed as we got older, but I still think of our family as weak. My father did run a few marathons in the early 1980s. I have assumed that if he could do it, I can.

So I took a few days off, considered dropping out. Today I had time to get out and run, but if my wife had not encouraged me to, I wouldn't have - and that would have been it. She's been picking up a lot of slack for me this month, and still encouraging this endeavor. I owe her so much.