This past weekend I ran a nice 15 miler in the cool morning fog near my mother's house in northwest NJ prior to visiting with my second youngest brother for lunch to celebrate his birthday. From there, the weekend was a bit of a roller coaster.

I was scheduled to run the NJ Marathon as the 3:30 pace leader, which I did on Sunday morning - finishing in 3:29:34, but Saturday afternoon was absolutely brutal. The temperatures were in the low 40's with howling winds coming in off of the ocean at 35 MPH all accompanied by a persistent misty rain. The pre-race expo was tightly constrained within its big top tent and the crowd was incredibly thick with nervous first timers. I attended the pasta dinner and offered advice and encouragement to a few of those rookies over pasta and salad before a less than appealing hour long drive to the Paterson area where I was staying with my best friend from high school. After 3 hours of sleep, following 2 hours of Gauntlet on the Xbox360, we pointed the car south on the Garden State Parkway and arrived an hour before the start.

Race weather was nearly perfect, especially considering what it looked like just 12 hours earlier, 52-degrees, intermittent breeze off the water, overcast for the first hour. Locking in the pace took about 4 miles while the crowds broke apart and I could corral my group into a relatively cohesive unit so that we hit the 1/2 marathon together at 1:45, right on target. Of course this was while I was battling persistant lower GI pressure that forced me to make a pit stop at the next row of port-a-johns 4 minutes later. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with my group again less than 2 miles later after pushing my pace down to 7:00. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the only time I had to make use of this tactic during the day.

During my second multiple mile game of catch-up I avoided all of the negative thoughts that would have killed my chances of catching up and getting back on the pace to fulfill my mission, to help other runners reach the finish at their target time of 3:30. I focused on the positive experiences from my recent Boston Marathon. I thought of how I overcame the hills, the heat, the sun, the wind, and a much more prolonged period at a similar pace. I focused on my successes and on the successes of those I had met that weekend; from champions such as Joan Benoit, Lance Armstrong, Ryan Hall, and Pam Reed to the countless number of everyday heroes with whom I shared the road that fine Monday morning. I tried to put this into words just before mile 24 for a runner who needed some additional motivation, and a bit of distraction, but I don't think it came across so well while my pace slowly pulled me away from her. Then again, I don't think it is coming across so well here either so I will just end this as I started - Find your inspiration to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep running - and keep it handy because you never know when you might need it.

Surprisingly, my performance in the Death March Memorial Marathon received coverage by my local newspaper, the Somerville Journal. Not so surprisingly, they didn't get all of the details quite right. But that seems to go with the territory.

I finally stopped running around (literally) long enough to sort through the photos from my trip to give a little more insight into the experience. Part of me wishes that I would have had a camera with me while running the race, but to be honest, I don't think my photos would have been all that great. I would recommend visiting the race website and viewing the event photos online.

Upon arriving in El Paso, TX two days before the event, I realized (a) that I had spent way too long crammed into airplane seats, (b) that I needed to get acclimated to heat, the lack of humidity, the sun, the altitude difference, and the terrain, and (c) that I needed to do something fun and educational while I was here. So with that I headed out to the namesake of the missile range and visited the White Sands National Monument the morning before the race. It was about a 120 mile drive from El Paso (the scenic route) and as you can see, the sands are definitely white.

It is also a strangely barren place, which at the time I went was truly devoid of people. During my run along the 4.8 mile "trail" through the dunes I only saw 4 other people, the footprints of whom are seen below. The sand is powder fine and filtered through my shoes and socks and got into just about anywhere on my body that sand could get. Only about the top 3 inches are loose, but that is more than enough to slow a person down dramatically. I was lucky to manage just over 10 minutes / mile and was very thankful for the 44 ounces of sports drink that I was carrying along the way. Fortunately, the sand on the race course was actually much more coarse and therefore easier to run through. I didn't experience anywhere near as much trouble as I did during this training excursion, which is probably how I did so well.

But of course the event was more than just a run on the beach, a beach nearly 1 mile above sea level and hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean; it was a memorial to the soldiers who suffered the horrors of the Bataan Death March through the jungles of the Philippines in 1942. My trip would not have been complete without a visit to their monument in nearby Las Cruces, NM.

I am honored to say that I was fortunate enough to sit and talk with a couple of the survivors of this horrendous chapter from a war full of great atrocities. Eight of these men were on hand to send us off at the start of the race with a handshake and a "hurry back"; an order that I obeyed and used as my inspiration while challenging the 4 mile long hill climb in the middle of the course. I am also proud to say that I was welcomed back by these same men when I crossed the finish line. Below is a picture of Colonel Glenn D. Frazzier and myself (wearing my signature honor flags) after the race. You can learn more about the Death March and Colonel Frazzier's experiences in his book .

I am so truly honored to have been able to compete in this event in honor of these men as well as all who have followed in their footsteps by answering the call to service. I truly appreciate that I can show them all my respect for what they have done and continue to do in the name of liberty and democracy. I also am honored that you have chosen to help support these efforts through your participation in following my progress, in your comments of encouragement, and in your pledges of support for this noble cause to help the NESHV.

And of course, no visit to the White Sands Missile Range would be complete without a visit to the missile museum.

Well...only 7 more days until the Boston Marathon. I know that I am recovered enough to complete the full 26.2 mile marathon distance, but I am unsure of just what pace to set for myself. Especially since less than 2 weeks later I will be undertaking the duty of leading others in their quests to qualify for next year's Boston Marathon by holding the 3:30 pace (8 minutes per mile) throughout the New Jersey Marathon. I intend to better my time from last year and would like to at least finish in under 3:20, but I really want to requalify myself for Boston with a 3:10 or better. Ideally I would be shooting for sub-3:00, but that might have to wait until the fall at the Marine Corps. Marathon, depending on the outcome of my application to pace at a marathon I completed before.

I don't have any good excuses as to why I haven't been able to keep to my weekly schedule posting to this blog, but at least I have been able to stay 90% faithful to my training routine, even slipping in a couple of yoga classes this past week to keep me loose.

My only explanation is that St. Patrick's Day, Easter, volunteering with WGBH TV, and the aforementioned 1040 and Mass Form 1 all received higher priority attention than for a blog which never receives any comments so it feels like it doesn't really matter to anyone (except me).

I just got in from 9 miles of random hill work around Somerville at my tempo pace. I feel pretty good except for some slight twinges in my calves that I expect are the result of partial dehydration and excessive pounding on the asphalt roads up and down these hills in the dark. Oh sure, just because it is going to be about 30-degrees warmer on Sunday for my race in the desert at about 5000 feet more elevation than I live and train is no reason to think that maybe I should rethink my goal time of 3:20. Actually, my goal is to finish in the top two places of my division (light civilian male) to bring home a medal to show my disabled veteran father upon my return. Based upon prior results I will have to knock out an awesome personal best finish to achieve that goal, but you never know what you are capable of until you try.

I must thank New Balance (and the Miami Marathon) for the shoes I was provided in exchange for leading the pace group in January. Those NB 1223 shoes have been great for me on my long runs, on these technical runs, and even for mile repeats on the track. By using these shoes I have been able to stretch the life of my other shoes by rotating through them more often, which means that some shoe retailer is going to be very happy with me sometime around August or September of this year.

Okay, time for me to wrap this up and try to get at least 6 1/2 hours of sleep tonight. I am so glad that I am not crazy enough to even attempt to catch any of the Red Sox opening day game from Japan at 6am tomorrow. Nope, I'm only crazy enough to try running 3 marathons in 7 weeks, when my previous minimum recovery time had been 4 months between races. At least I am smart enough to delay donating blood until after that third marathon.

This past weekend Boston saw more than the effects an excellent pressure defense has on a pocket-passing QB, it also saw the inaugural running of the Super Sunday 5k / 10k through the Seaport and FanPier Districts. And through my role as, last minute, Course Director I got to experience first hand the amazing efforts extended by race volunteers (and a few conscripted spectators) to ensure that all participants in the event had a wonderful racing experience.

It was a great event with an amazing turn out for a first-time local event with under a month of active promotion on a day when most people in the area were only thinking about a particular football game that evening. I can only imagine that next year's event will be even better and I hope to be a more effective part of that event through better management of volunteers and course resources. Fortuunately, even though I was kept incredibly busy running around ensuring that we had all of the important details covered, I was still able to interact with some of our participants before, during, and after the event. Knowing that I helped, in my own small way, to make this a positive experience for so many other people is incredibly rewarding.

Building upon that rewarding feeling from helping others have a fabulous and memorable race experience, I have once again succumbed to the Pace Leader Bug. So you can look for me to next lead the 8 minute/mile runners through both the half (1:45) and full (3:30) marathons on May 4 at the New Jersey Marathon, 13 days after I tackle the Boston Marathon and 20 days before I undertake my first Ultramarathon experience at the Western States Endurance Run Training Camp. It will be my first time participating in a formal running event since 1993, when I failed to move on from the first heat of the 400m intermediate hurdles at the NJ State Championships track meet. Fifteen years might have slowed me down some, mostly from lack of speed specific training no doubt, but it hasn't deminished my enjoyment of a weekend trip to the Jersey Shore. Eating funnel cake and curly fries counts as carbo-loading, right?