T-Minus 4 days, 15 hours, 25 or so minutes to the Baltimore and Annapolis Marathon, so I'm in my final week of tapering. I really haven't trained as much for this one as I should have, owing partly to this pesky kneecap injury suffered on a boat in the Virgin Islands. I had one 16 mile run at PR speeds and a 17 miler 2 days later, though slower. But I felt fine while running -- it was after that my kneecap hurt. So I took a week off and ran just a few warmup miles on the weekend. Well, my kneecap got all gushy with fluids. It's slowly receding (like my hairline).

So my plan (such as it is) is to start the marathon and check my knee at the half-way point. A cool thing about the B&A is that runners can decide to do the half, at the half-way point -- no earlier. So I really can postpone the decision until the last possible moment. And since I've done many runs further than 13.1 since the injury, I'm pretty confident about finishing that distance.

I've talked to a couple of trainer-types about this and they seem to feel that I probably didn't tear anything inside the knee and that this is more superficial. I hope so. And maybe that's just what I want to believe! So I'll start, maybe finish the half, maybe the whole, take some tylenol.

And then, as Toshi suggested, ice ice baby.

Well, it's been 8 days since my last run.  My knee was bothering me and so I decided to take time off to let it heal. It's better now, though it is still a little tender on the top of the knee cap (whatever that tendon is called).  Interestingly, my heels feel better too. I hadn't really noticed before, but my heels have been aching a bit. I've had an on-and-off problem with plantar faciitis for many years (like 20 or so) and the dull ache is barely above noise level anymore. So it was a surprise that they are feeling better too. It's not like I've done anything to make that problem go away.

I take fish oil capsules every day (y'know -- cause I love the aftertaste). And Glucosamine/Chondroitin. Maybe several years of that regimen has helped. Who knows.

16 days to the B&A marathon -- hope I'm ready...

Well, only 4 weeks to the Baltimore and Annapolis marathon, 2008. I'm not ready. I thought I wasn't ready for the Marine Corp Marathon last fall, but I'm really not ready for this one. I think all the training I did for the MCM is gone and has been replaced by Christmas and New Years training, which is mostly doing beverage lifts!

I've done some 18 mile runs and did a 14.4 last night, but my knees are protesting and I generally felt tired and weak. Tomorrow I'm gonna drag my sorry arse out of bed at 5:30 to hook up again with the striders for a 22 mile trainer. If that goes well, then I might think there's hope. I'll do one more 20+ and then taper. It's a short taper, but I'm not focused on this marathon anything like I was for the MCM. I'm using it more as a long-distance training run for the Frederick, which isn't until May.

But I can't have a slower time either (some ego, huh?).