Monday, August 22, 2005

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!

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