Marathon Training Update 3: Headed to LA!

T – 2 days until the ASICS LA Marathon! We’ve got our bags packed and the only thing standing between us and LA is the work day today. We’re super excited for our busy weekend, and when we return, Matt will be an official marathoner!

If you haven’t been keeping up with our progress, then here’s some catch-up: I mentioned in my marathon training update 1 that I had been having IT band issues and had some ridiculous, loaded training ahead of me. By my marathon training update 2: knowing when to throw in the towel, I shared my reluctant decision to call it quits because I couldn’t make it up to 1 mile without having a lot of knee pain. At this point, my focus shifted from running the marathon with Matt to being his #1 supporter. So this post will center around his progress and pre-race thoughts.

Matt isn’t exactly one to follow a strict training plan – he just follows his heart and runs when he thinks he should. Whereas, I am all about a strategically crafted schedule. Unfortunately, his heart didn’t tell him to run as much as he thinks he should have, so he feels quite undertrained. However, since he has such a thorough background in running, he’s banking on that to kick in and help him out. His longest training run WAS 27 miles (for his 27th birthday because he’s ridiculous), so even though he’s a wee bit nervous about the marathon, I feel pretty confident that he’ll rock it.

Before starting this training, Matt had run 26.2 miles before, but that was for funsies. Since he’ll be surrounded by runners this time, he thinks they will give him the motivation to keep going. Another benefit is the downtown LA course will be scenic. It starts at Dodger Stadium and ends at the beach in Santa Monica. As a result the race is mostly downhill, which should help because, in his words, “Gravity, yay!”

Overall, we’ve got quite the busy weekend ahead of us with a lot of Team ASICS events plus random VIP awesomeness. We can’t say enough about all the generosity and support that ASICS has showed us so far. It should be a good time to meet the other runners on the challenge team and rock some of our new ASICS gear. Before we know it, we’ll be celebrating on the beach and cursing at the sun for its harsh temperatures predicted for Sunday.