As expected, tens of thousands of runners received the "thanks for entering" e-mail this past week. Yes, I was among the 77,107 hopeful runners that paid a non-refundable $11 for the honor of being told not to make plans for NYC in November. Approx. 9,100 were given good news that they hit the lottery. Do the math, thats approx. $850k collected by the NY Road Runners from people hoping that their number would be called. Big money in this sport, big money indeed. Add to this total another $255 for all of the 50,000 runners (40,000 non-lottery runners qualify by their times or are running for a charity), or another $12,750,000, and we are talking some serious change. I would say the sport of running, and in particular road races, is alive and well.
In fact, approximately 541,000 runners completed in an American marathon last year. Thats an all-time high. At least until 2014, when many believe that the events in Boston last April will result in even larger numbers running.
Even more impressive are expectations that more than 2 million runners participated in a half marathon in 2013. This will not come as a surprise to any of you that have been racing this distance. Where there were once races with 100 participants, we now see multiples of that number. Clearly, the half is the distance of choice. And for good reason. It's about as perfect a race as there could be. Short enough that most runners willing to put in a little work can finish. And long enough that even the most accomplished runners have to respect the distance. The best of both worlds.
Last week was a good week of running for me. Nothing too long but just felt good on all 4 runs. Capped it off Saturday morning with a Colonial Road Runners group run. My plan was to run an easy 5 on a familiar loop. For me, thats anywhere from 45-46 minutes. Instead, I fell in with a couple of gents and found myself pushing pretty good once we got going. Ended up running 6.5 with 4 of the 6 miles below an 8:30 pace. For this time of year, thats pretty good.
Next up for me is Doyle's Emerald Necklace on April 13, a 5 miler organized by Doyle's Pub in Jamaica Plain. The distance should be a good challenge for me as one piece of my training that I have not started yet is speed work. At almost 50, the body tends to handle the request for more speed a bit differently in the spring. We shall see. Anything around 41 minutes will make me very happy.
Hopefully this is the week you take those first few steps.....you won't regret it!
Run FOR life, not from it....
JD
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