Week In Review

83 Miles
11M MLR
14M with 8M tempo via 556, 612, 559, 554, 604, 600, 551, 555
23.5M at 6:59 pace
8 Runs, 0 Days Off

The marathon training grind really kicked off this week.  When Terry had an 8 mile tempo on the schedule for marathon pace, I immediately synced with Heather to see if her workout was somewhat similar. Fortunately, she had 6 miles at MP, so I hopped on board with her to that we could both mutually benefit from running together.  I continue to be amazed at the support I've found out here, both from a running and personal perspective.  I had a bit of a cold this week, and Heather just chatted away during this workout, keeping my mind off the struggle I was facing.  I felt bad because I couldn't respond with much more than "yeah, it's great" for most of the run.

On Saturday, Tom and Jenna joined me for portions of a time on feet long run where I had strict instructions to drink very little to no water.  I got a couple of sips just twice during the run, and I was grateful that I did if more just for the mental sanity it provided me.

I can't believe that Chicago is in just 6 weeks!  It became more real because some Bank of America associates came out to meet me at Rancho San Antonio for a photo shoot for an article.  Typically BOA features about 12 athletes who have really cool, inspiring stories related to the marathon.  Most of the folks are real heros, battling cancer or running with a handicap or helping save lives in other countries.  My story obviously isn't along those lines, but they wanted to feature me since I do work for Bank of America.  Ironically, while I've been extremely open about my divorce to everyone in both my work and personal lives, I didn't want to make that the spotlight for the piece on me.  So instead it's mostly about the injury leading up to the Trials, which was really just a small blip on the map compared to all the other junk that happened in the first quarter of 2016.

But I digress.  I'm so honored and humbled to be included in the BOA Chicago Elite field.  After all, I was rejected at least twice before to this program.  Over the years, Bank of America has supported my endeavors to pursue training for the Olympic Trials and also to graduate from the Duke Fuqua School of Business while working full time.  Even during my separation, when I felt like I was putting my career on the line by requesting to work from Durham for an undetermined amount of time, my manager came through and let me do it, no questions asked.  It's moments like those that made me feel like I truly mattered, not only as an employee, but as a person.  I can thank all of my current and past managers for creating that culture.  My managers have been completely supportive of me during my 8-year stint at this company, so it's very meaningful for me to race as a way of saying thanks for all that they've done over the past couple of years.