It's a Numbers Game
Marathoning is a numbers game.
Scooter (Wayne), in his endless support, enthusiasm and boosterism reponded to my last Blog with:
Vince,180 is a NUMBER! The key is that you're damned close to it, not the 200 lbs. from before. Based on the 2 sec/mile/lb estimate, the 18? lbs you lost will roughly equate to 943 seconds or 15 2/3 minutes in your marathon. Don't be concerned about not making 180, be proud of losing 18 lbs by marathon day! I smell BOSTON! Wayne
Wayne, is of course right. Wayne, is also, of course, wrong.
180 is just a number, but it is also more than a number.
My two best marathons, at 210 pounds - 3:53 and change; at 203 pounds - 3:52 and change.
184.5 - while laudable, as Wayne points out, is good but probably NOT good enough.
As as my good friend Michael (an engineer of course and a brilliant one at that) says, "Vince, the data, does not lie. It's all in the numbers, Buddy"
15 2/3 minutes faster than a 3:52 does not Vince a Boston 3:30:59 Qualifier make. In fact, being generous (as I am ever wont to do), 16 minutes off of a 3:52 marathon works out suspiciously close to 3:36. Which sounds far too close to heartache to even bare contemplating.
Listen, the new 184.5 pound Vince is great. I look and feel MaaaHvelooouusss, Dahlin'. My clothes fit better, I can wear stuff from the back of the closet where it has lain in slumbering hibernation for the better part of a decade. I'll drop my kit in a second a Wreck Beach. I am faster, fitter and most important of all, much healthier. Sheesh, I'm three weeks away from a six-pack! Okay, maybe a four-pack. I am even, heaven's to Betsy, happier. The pretty girls, well, some of the girls, look twice as I walk down the street and I feel confident that I am on the right track.
But 15 and 2/3 minutes faster does not cut the mustard. The numbers, as Michael would say, require that I be 180 pounds or lighter and the single best indicator to date suggests a body weight of 176. Not easy, but not impossible. Doable with a plan and committment and discipline. I am barely going to scrap by 3:30 if everything goes according to plan. At 176, fit, healthy pounds, I may have a tiny extra margin of sped that will scoot me across the finish line in Kelowna around 3:25.
And if I don't make it in Kelowna? It's not the end of the world. I just keep trying. After all, 3:30:59 is just a NUMBER! And I'm going to beat it. If not on October 9th, then some day soon afterwards!
Scooter (Wayne), in his endless support, enthusiasm and boosterism reponded to my last Blog with:
Vince,180 is a NUMBER! The key is that you're damned close to it, not the 200 lbs. from before. Based on the 2 sec/mile/lb estimate, the 18? lbs you lost will roughly equate to 943 seconds or 15 2/3 minutes in your marathon. Don't be concerned about not making 180, be proud of losing 18 lbs by marathon day! I smell BOSTON! Wayne
Wayne, is of course right. Wayne, is also, of course, wrong.
180 is just a number, but it is also more than a number.
My two best marathons, at 210 pounds - 3:53 and change; at 203 pounds - 3:52 and change.
184.5 - while laudable, as Wayne points out, is good but probably NOT good enough.
As as my good friend Michael (an engineer of course and a brilliant one at that) says, "Vince, the data, does not lie. It's all in the numbers, Buddy"
15 2/3 minutes faster than a 3:52 does not Vince a Boston 3:30:59 Qualifier make. In fact, being generous (as I am ever wont to do), 16 minutes off of a 3:52 marathon works out suspiciously close to 3:36. Which sounds far too close to heartache to even bare contemplating.
Listen, the new 184.5 pound Vince is great. I look and feel MaaaHvelooouusss, Dahlin'. My clothes fit better, I can wear stuff from the back of the closet where it has lain in slumbering hibernation for the better part of a decade. I'll drop my kit in a second a Wreck Beach. I am faster, fitter and most important of all, much healthier. Sheesh, I'm three weeks away from a six-pack! Okay, maybe a four-pack. I am even, heaven's to Betsy, happier. The pretty girls, well, some of the girls, look twice as I walk down the street and I feel confident that I am on the right track.
But 15 and 2/3 minutes faster does not cut the mustard. The numbers, as Michael would say, require that I be 180 pounds or lighter and the single best indicator to date suggests a body weight of 176. Not easy, but not impossible. Doable with a plan and committment and discipline. I am barely going to scrap by 3:30 if everything goes according to plan. At 176, fit, healthy pounds, I may have a tiny extra margin of sped that will scoot me across the finish line in Kelowna around 3:25.
And if I don't make it in Kelowna? It's not the end of the world. I just keep trying. After all, 3:30:59 is just a NUMBER! And I'm going to beat it. If not on October 9th, then some day soon afterwards!
posted by Vince Hemingson at 9:00 AM
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