Of Monkey's and Madness

With such a topsy-turvy, mind-numbing, serial-apathy towards any kind of training over the past 4 months, I find myself on the eve (so to speak) of my 4th Marathon. The 5tth annual Flying Monkey is set to start at 8:00am on the 21st of this month.

I'm quoting from the Marathon web site here "it is a marathon that is about running. Running hard. Running over big and memorable rolling hills and through dense woods. Running with other like minded athletes. The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon is about the joy and pain of running a unique, and uniquely challenging--some would say beastly--26.2 mile course in the beautiful and historic Percy Warner Park, nestled among the Middle Tennessee Harpeth Hills... 26.2 tough and memorable miles, with a total of 3500 feet of elevation gain and loss."

On some of the running message boards, I hear stuff like: "training run", "hope to finish in 7 hours", "someone pace me, I'm going to run 12 minute miles",  "God help us all".

Mostly, I'm thinking about the 3  Yazoo Beer kegs that Trent (the race director) is tapping at the end of the Marathon.

Trent caps the runner limit to 250 folks, and although it is a very hilly and tough coarse, the marathon sold out in 32 minutes. Sounded like "fun" to me, so I went for it.

Stay tuned for more thoughts and how my training jogging has gone in preparation for this "training run."