I have done a lot of stupid things in my life. This weekend, I will add one more thing to that list: running a half-marathon with no training.

When I signed up for the Virginia Beach Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon a long time ago, I had every intention of training throughout the summer and being ready to run an awesome race. Then I got really busy at work and completely neglected my training. Once things got less busy at work, I never really picked up the training again. I think I've been on exactly two runs since my last event (the Krispy Kreme Challenge last February) -- about 3 miles each time.

This is not the way to train for a long distance run.

I checked the information about the course, and they're planning on keeping it open for four hours. That means a pace of about 18 minute miles will let me complete the course before they close it. I'm pretty sure I can walk at that pace (or better) for four hours, so that's my back-up plan.

If you really want to track my progress during the race, you can do so at Competitor Wireless, but it'll cost you $2. Let me save you $2: I'm going to be slow, near the end, and work my hardest to make sure I finish. I'll probably tweet when I'm done. Heck, maybe I'll tweet throughout the race, so just follow my twitter feed instead.

Whatever happens, I'll be seeing the Black Crowes after the race Sunday night. That'll be fun.

I went for my first run this morning after several months off. I've got a half marathon scheduled for next month, so I really need to shape up quickly.

My shoes still work.
My legs still mostly work.
My lungs don't really work.

I've got some work to do.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

I was looking through the various press coverage of the Krispy Kreme Challenge and found that WRAL had a photo with me in it:



I'm the guy in the white shirt and Krispy Kreme hat in the bottom right corner of the photo. At this point, I had already eaten two donuts and was considering how many more I could manage to eat.

I'm back home from the Krispy Kreme Challenge. 2400 800 calories. 12 3 donuts. 4 miles. 1 hour.

For several hours after the race, I felt awful. Thank goodness yarbiedoll drove back to Greensboro -- I just slept. If you're thinking of complaining that I didn't complete the challenge, I don't want to hear it unless you've progressed farther in the challenge than I have. I don't care how hard you might think it is, it's harder.

ESPN was there, with someone running, and he interviewed me a little bit just before the finish. I think they said their coverage of this is going to be on SportsCenter on the 22nd.

I've already got some ideas about how to do it better next year. I think with a little more training, I'll be able to complete the full challenge next time.

Tomorrow's the Krispy Kreme Challenge. 2400 calories. 12 donuts. 4 miles. 1 hour. They say that ESPN is going to be there to cover it. I'm getting ready to go to sleep now. Hopefully I'll have a good showing.

If you're in Raleigh, come on out and check it out.

I just signed up for my first running event of 2009: the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Four miles. Twelve donuts. One hour.

"Someday" I'll write about my marathon experiences in more detail. Until then, go read my brother's account of the OBX Marathon, including sections on Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, the Nature Preserve, Croatan Highway, the Bridge (where I completely upheld the Cohoon Bridge tradition), Manteo, the Finish, and all the pics we all took.

The professional pictures from the OBX Marathon are up. The ones of me came out pretty good, I think.

I've never calibrated my Nike+iPod. I think I really need to go ahead and do that if I'm going to keep running long distances. It appears to be about 10% more generous for my runs than truth. E.g., it considered yesterday's 26.2 (plus a little bit) miles to be 28.66:



For short runs, that's not really too big a deal, but as the run gets longer, it's inaccurate enough to really mess with my head.

BTW, for yesterday's marathon, I didn't actually listen to the iPod -- I just carried it for tracking the mileage. It was so much more fun talking with ccohoon and olga_ukraine while we were running. Then, after about 6 miles, when we separated, I actually enjoyed just taking in the scenery without having the music to distract me. That surprised me -- I thought that once I was running alone, I'd need want the iPod.

It did get very depressing around Mile 18, and I was tempted to plug the earbuds in, but it was actually too much work to do. Miles 16-20 can be a very bad place to be, mentally. Especially if there's absolutely no one around -- I couldn't see any runners either in front of or behind me. At that point, I was ready to just give up, cry, and wait for the pick-up vehicle to get me. But I managed to get through -- once I was out of the neighborhood and back on the main road, my mood improved dramatically.

I finished the OBX Marathon a little while ago! Two marathons in two weeks.

I'm going to take some time off, now.

Until Thanksgiving, when I'll run an 8k.

It won't be very long before I head off for the OBX Marathon. I'm really excited! They don't have all the fancy text message capability that the MCM had a few weeks ago, but they say that they'll be updating the results in real time at the lin-mark.com website. It might include splits in real time, so if you're hanging around your computer Sunday between 0800 and 1500, you might want to check over and see if they're reporting how I'm doing. Apparently, I'm Bib 1648.

Again, I'm planning on having my phone with me, so feel free to send me text messages. It was pretty cool getting the messages from your guys last time. I'm hoping to take some good pictures, too.

I keep meaning to write up a really awesome report of the Marathon I ran a week and a half ago. I noticed that ccohoon has written one up on his site. He's got lots of great pictures and some very good descriptions of the actual run. He took the included photograph, e.g., showing a nice Marine giving me my Finisher's Medal.

So, since I probably won't write my own report until I write my own report, check his write-up and pictures out:

• Overview
• A few pictures at the start
• Around Mile 7
• About halfway, the most mentally challenging part of the course for me
• The Glorious Bridge
• The Even More Glorious City Of Angels
• A few pictures at the finish
• All the pictures

I love his write-up. It was really cool that he took his camera with him and took lots of pictures while we were running.

I just signed up for two more running events: the Outer Banks Marathon (NC) in a week and a half and the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon (VA) for next Labor Day.

I'll probably get a few 5k races in before the year is out, too.

I finished the marathon at approximately the slow pace I intended. It was really awesome, but I'll write about it more later. Steaks await!

I placed 17,856, which means I won (since I finished). I was 10,912 for men and 1,964 in my division.

Well, tomorrow morning, I'll be up nice and early to head out to DC for the Marine Corps Marathon. It's kinda surreal that it's already upon me. I'm ready for it. I'm excited. I'm nervous. Mostly, I'm excited.

For those of you playing along at home, I don't know what sort or live reporting will be happening on the website, but feel free to check it out. You can also sign up for text messages and/or email following the instructions I posted earlier. According to the literature they gave me with my packet, there will be live coverage of the race on flir.com -- it looks like they might have webcams set up or something.

I'm going to bring my phone, so I'll be posting photos here unless/until my battery runs down. If you want to send me text messages, you can use the LJ-SMS gateway.

Depending on what everyone else's plans are for tonight, I'm thinking of doing my final prep for tomorrow's race by watching Run, Fatboy, Run.

I just finished my final marathon prep -- I went out in the brisk cold to run about a mile. I did it at a quicker pace than usual and sprinted for the end. Just want to let my body know that it's still got work to do, even though I've been easy on it the past week or so. I'm ready, and I'm looking forward to it.

If you want to track my process on race day via text messages and/or email, you can. On the Remote Runner Tracking page, you can sign up to track runners. I did that a few years ago when ccohoon and olga_ukraine ran and it was pretty neat. If you want to follow me, you'll need to know that my last name is "Cohoon", my first name is "Greg", and I'm from "Greensboro, NC". You can sign up to follow up to three runners with updates via text message and/or email. They'll send a message when I cross pre-determined points on the course with info about where I am, what my pace is, etc.

Wow, the marathon is only a week and a half away.

The last time I attempted a 20-mile run, I failed. I began to question my ability to complete the marathon. I was not in a happy place.

This past Saturday, I attempted the 20-mile run again. It was my last shot for a long run before the marathon, with time to let my body recover. All told, I did 18.25 miles. I would have finished the whole 20 if I hadn't started developing a blister. So I'm disappointed that I didn't complete my goal, but I'm happy that I got the blister a few days ago instead of at the marathon. Now I know where I need to put some moleskin when I run the race.

There is a world of difference running in the cool. Never again will I attempt to train for a marathon in the full heat of the summer. Really, that's just stupid. If I do this again and need to train in the summer, I'll buy a treadmill. If it weren't for the blister, I could have kept running for hours.

So, when the marathon comes around in a week and a half, I think I'm ready to do it. Yes, I'm nervous about it. I' slow, but I think I can beat the bus. I might see the bus, but I think I can beat it. It's another eight miles than I've done on my longest training run, but I think I'll be OK.

More than anything, I'm looking forward to running this with other people. As bad as the heat has been for my training, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as doing the training alone. The loneliest I've ever felt has been while running, at around 16 miles. And it takes hours after finishing a run and being around people again to shake it. At the marathon, I'll be running with ccohoon (who has my explicit permission to leave me in the dust if I'm too slow for him) and tens of thousands of other people. Even being surrounded by people I don't know will be better than what I've faced in training.

So to recap: I'm confident about my ability to complete the marathon. Training in the Southern heat is stupid. It's lonely after about 15 miles.

I'm still running and training for the marathon. Just not as much as I probably should be.

Realistically, I think I'm at a point where I could complete the marathon before the bus would pick me up and make me quit. But I bet that bus would be right behind me for the last part of the race and I don't think I'd enjoy the experience. My longest long run is still only eighteen miles. I should have twenty-three under my belt at this point.

The good news is that the weather has finally turned to bearable. The last three times I attempted a long run, I had to throw in the towel early, mainly due to heat issues. It's at least 10 degrees cooler now, and if it can stay that way through the weekend, I expect to have a very successful long run on Saturday.

The marathon's only about a month away, so I really don't have any slack time at all.

Once it's over, I'm really looking forward to continuing to run, but not having to worry about doing more than about ten miles as a long run. It really will be nice to have this behind me.

I overslept a little, but that wasn't such a big deal since I only had 10 miles to run today. I was out the door by about 9:30 and cooling down on the front porch by about quarter 'till noon. A bit of a faster pace than my other long runs, but I don't know if I could have maintained that faster pace for a run twice as long.

This week, I hope to get my bicycle out and do some cycling on my non-run days to help with the endurance. And I'm going to try to use my short run to work on a little speed. I'm not trying to break any records or anything, but I think my speed right now is right on the edge of too slow for them to allow me to complete the race. So I need to pick it up a little from that.

My first mile or two today was tough, but the rest of the run was lots of fun. At one point, I was considering adding another mile or two, but I know that's a dangerous thing to do on what's supposed to be the recovery long run. Also, it was starting to get hot again, and I didn't want to mess with having another battle with the heat like I have the past several weeks.

All in all, a great run. In an hour, I'm going to be watching the men's marathon at the olympics. That's the one event I've been looking forward to whole time.