Came up short, but the race to end homelessness is endless

Wow - here it is September 15th and I'm less than 7 weeks away from my next marathon (NYC Marathon November 1st). It will be the 40th anniversary of the NYC Marathon. Not lost on me is the fact that I'm 40 y.o. and running for the Pine Street Inn this year on its 40th anniversary.

I'm not sure what that all adds up to (besides 120!), but a cool coincidence - and my 10th full marathon, as well! I hope to remain healthy for the next several weeks; most of my post-CO marathon "running" time has been spent nursing bursitis (inflammation) in my right heel ...thought it was a stress fracture or tendinitis, though, so I'm happy to say that after a relatively low-running summer, I feel pretty good this fall. Also, a cortisone shot in my arthritic right shoulder has me able to move that arm in full circles again, so I'm grateful for the quick fixes available to my (slowly?) breaking down chassis.

Results of my 2 marathons in 2 weeks were very good - just missing personal records in Boston and overall (ran the CO marathon in 3:42:43, missing a PR by 2 seconds!). Missed a Boston PR by less than a minute as well, so overall, I can't complain about the running last spring. It was the heel pain following all the running that made for an iffy summer of running. But between the 2 near-misses and coming up 10% short of my fundraising goal, I feel like 2009 was a series of "almosts." I'd like to finish NYC strong and begin the difficult and perpetual journey toward running a Boston qualifying pace of 3 hours 20 minutes one of these days...perhaps spring of 2010 will be my shot...maybe sooner? :-)

So as the weather has turned cooler, and the days are getting shorter, I recently went out for an 18 mile run and felt good - not great, but from a 14.1 mile long run last week to 18 was a big jump. Am happy to say that the feet are good, and the psyche is getting there...now I just have to get work off the brain and get out of my chair more often...you can't cheat the need for many runs and increasing miles as the big race approaches, and I've been slackin!

I am proud to say that many family and friends (Lena, among the many!) seem to have taken to running a bit more lately and I'd like to think my insanity has played a small, if not significant, role in it...as I type, I'm ready to hit the road, but I'll wait 'til morning...it's bedtime now, and I'm wide awake, thinking about too much work, too few hours in the day, and (hopefully) 10 good miles tomorrow...