The Future… Spring 2007

Granted you may believe it’s premature for me to be considering my next marathon given Sacramento was three days ago and I’m still having difficulty walking down stairs, but the seed for spring 2007 was planted in autumn 2005.

Ally and I spent two weeks touring Ireland and were in England visiting my relatives. While seated on a topless double-decker bus touring around London the guide made reference to the marathon route. “Wouldn’t it be fantastic to run through downtown London starting in Blackheath and ending at the Mall right in front of Buckingham Palace?” Imagine running past the Royal Naval College and Maritime Museum past the famous clipper, The Cutty Sark, over Tower Bridge, the Tower of London to your left… the seed had been planted. I initiated the application process this summer, first sending a money order and self-addressed return envelope so that I could receive the appropriate application form, submitting said application form and then… waiting.

The waiting for me coincidentally ended with my return to Victoria last weekend. In the mail was a thin envelope from the UK in which was enclosed my official regret letter. Bastards. There is still a slim possibility I may be able to toe the starting line on April 22nd but I’m not holding my breath, let’s say it hinges on a friend of a friend, situations that sadly, on no account, seem to never unfold according to plan.

Luckily for me, having achieved the required Boston qualification standard in May (35-39, 3h15) I had sent in my application and was successful. My plan at present, subject to a good deal of discussion and change, is to run the 111th Boston Marathon on Monday April 16, 2007, 131 days and counting…

Training (12 weeks out) officially starts January 29, 2007.