Thousand Miles From Nowhere

"I'm a thousand miles from nowhere,
Time don't matter to me.
'Cause I'm a thousand miles from nowhere,
And there's no place I wanna be."

Every run takes you here - a thousand miles from nowhere! When I am lost in a run, I am lost from life for a little while. Although I am lost, I notice more of the little things on my runs. I notice more of my surroundings. I notice when sheep are looking at me. I ran the other morning and just about a quarter of a mile from my house, I heard a bell, looked and saw a sheep raising his head to catch a glimpse of me running by. Now, you have to understand that I live in New Jersey and although sheep obviously exist here, they are not in abundance. The simple sight of a sheep watching me run just made the morning worthwhile. A little further down the road were his buddies, grazing in the front yard of their neighbors house, no fence, just grazing and providing mowing services (good thing because the people who live in this house don't see to own a mower!) They all stared at me and frankly I waved just to say good morning. The sun was just inching above the horizon with a crisp blue sky as a backdrop. At the next corner were my horse friends. Since they were both near the fence, I decided to make a stop to say hello. They were a little hesitant at first but after a minute and a little coaxing, they visited and I petted them. I am sure they were looking for a little more than just a petting - maybe next time. On the rest of the run I saw two dogs and 3 deer. How many people who don't run even notice these things - the little things that make you realize there is more to life?

My marathon training in general has been good - not fantastic, not horrible, just good. However, I do feel that I will peak at the right time. I am putting in 50-55 miles a week, have done 4 long runs of 18-21 miles with one more scheduled, 4 weekends of 30-33 miles and have a few half marathon tempo races to have fun with. Baltimore is just 4 weeks away. I can't believe it has been a year already. This, being my 5th Baltimore marathon and 15th marathon overall, I'm getting excited to be toeing the starting line again but more excited crossing the finish line. At that point I will be a thousand miles from nowhere and no place I wanna be!