On my 38th birthday, I made a list of 101 goals that I wanted to accomplish in 1001 days. I last updated my progress on this list at the beginning of July.

One of the goals that means the most to me is “complete a marathon”. I’m not sure why, but I have it in my head that this is a major Life Achievement. Ideally, I’d run a marathon. In the real world, however, I keep getting injured. So far, running hasn’t been an option.

However, I realized a couple of weeks ago that after walking 5-10 miles nearly every day this summer, I just might be in shape to walk a marathon. So I signed up. This Sunday, I’ll be walking the Portland Marathon.

Chris Guillebeau plans to accompany me for part of the course (up to ten miles, he says). This is awesome. Walking and talking with Chris will be an excellent way to pass the time. I would love to walk and talk with you, too. If you’re free on Sunday and want to walk a mile or two with me, let me know. We’ll make arrangements.

Some quick facts:

  • The marathon starts at 7am in downtown Portland. It winds through downtown, then heads up across the St. Johns Bridge before returning to downtown.
  • I intend to walk the entire route. I had entertained the notion of running and walking, but I’m not going to do it. This is all walking.
  • I walk at an average pace. I expect to do approximately 17-minute miles. At this pace, I’ll complete the marathon in 7-1/2 hours. This sounds perfect.

So, how about it? Anyone want to join me for a mile or two — or twelve? Mac? Pam? Andy? Tiffany? Craig? Lisa? Lane? Walk with me!

8 Replies to “Walk With Me”

  1. Pam says:

    JD – I know first hand how much it helps to have somebody by your side during these kind of events, so I think it is a great idea to enlist your friends. Beware, though, they try very hard to keep all non-registered runners off of the St. John’s bridge, so probably best to go that section alone.

    I’d love to join you for a bit – 17 min miles is just about my pace right now! Let me check with Mac and get back to you…

  2. Tiffany says:

    I would love to join you. Do you want me to join you on the first part? I have no problem getting up early.

  3. I don’t run, so I cannot say anything useful from experience, but since you mentioned injuries I recalled an article I on Lifehacker I read a few months ago describing the benefits “barefoot style” running provides, specially to those who suffer regular injuries.

    The article argues injuries usually come from using typical running shoes, as those cause the foot to move in a very different way from the natural human run movement, the one we instinctively use when running barefooted, thus causing bones and articulations to move in wrong ways:

    http://lifehacker.com/5315406/ditch-your-shoes-for-better-runs

    The articles linked from it provide way more information and are all very interesting.

    By the way, I haven’t searched your blog to see whether you already know or have tried this. If this is redundant information, well, sorry. 🙂

  4. PS.: In an unrelated point, I’m seeing this error in the right bar right below the “Sally Parrott Ashbrook” title entry:

    Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/jdroth/jdroth.com/words/wp-content/themes/thesis_151/custom/custom_functions.php on line 36

    I hope this helps.

  5. Pam says:

    Sorry, I won’t be joining you, but I know my “coaching assistant” will provide excellent support! I’ll be thinking of you and waiting for your “race report.” Enjoy the time. -p

  6. Lisa says:

    Sorry to miss you, J.D. We’ll be farming it up this weekend. Have fun!

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