Friday, August 1, 2008

Stone Cat Trail Marathon - Goal Race for 2008

Applications for the Stone Cat 50 Mile and Marathon were made available today. This race has been in the back of my mind since January. This is when I began my slow return to running after a seven month layoff due to multiply injuries. I am still struggling to overcome them completely but have not yet been successful. However, I have improved a great deal since I started my comeback six months ago with a minute jog/minute walk training regime. I’m now running 20 – 30 miles a week at a very slow pace. Still, I am thankful that I have come this far.

Now it’s time to move on to the next phase. It’s time to set a goal. I have never been the type to set easily attainable ones. I prefer to set a goal that has some possibility of failure. As T.S Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”. So, despite all the setbacks I have had in the past year, I feel I am making slow but steady progress. I am confident I can continue on this path and slowly increase my training without further complications. To make my commitment complete, today I mailed my application for the Stone Cat Marathon to the race director.

Fourteen weeks until race day. It seems so far away, yet there is much to do. I will be posting my 3 month training plan for the marathon in the next few days. I will also provide weekly updates of my actual training vs. my plan. In this way, I will resist any temptation to slack off when the training gets more difficult. I just hope to stay healthy enough to make it through the training. The race itself will be the easy part.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.--Confucius

2 comments:

  1. Hi Dan, best of luck in your pursuit to run Stone Cat. I have been toying with the notion of running Stone Cat as an "after party" for my accomplishment of completing my first marathon on the roads. It is sort of a passing of the torch, from road runner, who likes trails, to trail runner that dabbles with road running occasionally. Also, being less than three miles from a trailhead into Willowdale provides some nice opportunities to do longer runs all on the "good stuff".

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  2. Hi Rob
    Thanks for the good wishes. What road marathon are you considering? If you decide to do Stone Cat as well, and would like a training partner on some of your long runs in Willowdale, give me a shout. I would like to recon the terrain before the race.

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