Chances Slim

Episode 1 is now up on the sub-15 blog. I'd like to take a moment to reflect upon how mutually exclusive my current running goals are. As if running a fast Boston or breaking 15 minutes (when I could never do it before) weren't hard enough, I'm dumb enough to try to do them in the same year. Goal number three, therefore, has to be not getting a femoral stress fracture. Enjoy.

Back From Vice City

Apologies for the lack of new blog posts. I've been away at a conference in New Orleans, and as a result, my running and blog posting have suffered.


By day, I drank coffee and was stuck in a suit for 12 hours at a time. By night, I was a hell cat, and considering our locale, this took its toll. New Orleans is basically one loud tranny bar filled with cigarette smoke. I didn't mind the fact that there are video poker machines at gas stations, but I did object to the fact that from Thursday to Tuesday, I had one long mild headache. This was the result of copious amounts of coffee and alcohol with little water in between and little sleep to boot. No one to blame but myself.

Running-wise, I guess I finished "Week 1" around what I wanted with a mid-40's performance. This week will be far worse than expected, though, as I haven't run since Saturday.

Thanks to Steve for posting the Sub-15 blog. I'm not sure when that little experiment will start, though I'm sure it will be very painful and fun to watch.

The Quest for Sub-15:00

So the blog idea that Sam alluded to earlier is a quest to break 15:00 for 5k. Each week he and I will complete one workout here in Syracuse. The catch is that the workout will be created by blog readers and can be comprised of just about any sort of repeats imaginable. We will keep a video record of our training and rate each workout when we are finished. Here is the link to where these videos will be cataloged: http://sub15minutes.blogspot.com/
If you have a good workout idea feel free to post it in the comments section after you watch the pilot episode.

A Word on the Second Coming

This is mostly a housekeeping post. I thought it would be useful to get some logistical things out of the way as we prepare for the (re)launch of Marathon à Trois.

First of all, it should be clear to everyone that the format has changed dramatically. You'll now be able to access links under the banner (e.g. "About", "Log", etc.), which is something you couldn't do before. I think there is a way to create a subpage within Blogger without creating a post, but I haven't figured out how to do it (hence the posts entitled "About" and "Log"). If one of you guys stumbles upon the solution, let me know. Hopefully you all agree that the color scheme is a lot cheerier. All in all, I think we're in a better place with the new layout.

Second, I wanted to tell you how the running log feature will work. I created a form using Googledocs, so now instead of posting a weekly recap, you can just go to the log and fill out your mileage. You can even do this a couple of times per week if you want. Just make sure you don't double up on reporting different days. Everything you input goes to a big spreadsheet, which I can share with you if you want. From that spreadsheet, it will be super easy to create graphs and shit. Cheeah. Welcome to 2011.

Third, Steve proposed an idea on the run today, which I thought was excellent. I'm thinking we'll devote a link to it so that we can track its evolution from now until summer. I'll let Steve describe it in his own post, though.

Finally, I just wanted to extend a warm welcome to le trois neveux: Oliver, Steve, and Will. Make us proud.

About Marathon à Trois

Gordon, Ross, and Sam were all middle-distance runners on the track and field team at Cornell University. As is the case with many collegiate athletes, their lives devolved into the petty swill of the prosaic American dream after graduation.

In late 2010, these three -- better known as "le trois" -- developed the zany idea of running the Pittsburgh Marathon in order to salvage some of their former glory. This blog, which derives its namesake from a friend's food blog, followed suit as a chronicle of their successes and failures along the way.

Pittsburgh was a painful experience, but everyone made it to the finish line. Sam and Ross got Boston qualifiers and have set their sights on the ballyhooed April race. Gordon cramped up early on (we're talking like mile 4) and missed the standard, but he's gearing up for another go in the spring--possibly with swimming and biking attached.

The paltry blog readership has also been reduced by 20% for this go-round, as Oliver, Steve, and Will have been tapped as honorary authors for launch part deux. They have disparate goals on the roads but one shared vision for blogging greatness.

So with that, thanks for coming. Lord knows what's in store for the new-found six-some as we trudge on to Boston and beyond.

Running Log