Portland, Here I Come.

Plantar fasciitis notwithstanding, I’m on my way to run the Portland Marathon this weekend. I know, I know, I should wait until my foot feels better before doing another race, but I scheduled and paid for this one before I came down with foot failure. Actually, I’m really excited about the race on Sunday. The main reason is that I’ll be trying something different. My plan is to do my own version of the Galloway Method.

Ever since I discovered that I could actually keep running for 26.2 miles, I’ve never been one to take walk breaks except at water stations. I’m not sure how I got into the habit of thinking that running every step of a course is more honorable or earns me more points in marathon heaven than a walk/run routine would do, but that’s been my mentality for the last few years. Bill has been encouraging me to try Galloway’s run/walk structure for some time; he thinks it will actually speed up my pace in the end (which I keep insisting is not important – but he IS the one who waits patiently for me to finish, so I suppose he has a stake in my pace, too). Since I couldn’t see how adding WALKING into the already long journey could plausibly make me finish faster, I have outright ignored Bill’s suggestions.

Then I met Jeff Galloway. Jeff and his wife were at the Humpy’s ‘thon in Anchorage. In fact, they were on the trail behind me at about mile five. Then they were on the trail in front of me for miles six and seven. Then they finished the race more than three quarters of an hour before I came over the line. And, here’s the kicker: They walked half the race! That’s right folks. They walked for 30 seconds and ran for 30 seconds for the entire 42k.

I was so impressed that when we got home, I ordered a little gadget like I saw Jeff’s wife wearing on her belt. It looks like the timers Starbucks uses to notify them when their coffee is done brewing (Can you guess where I am as I write this post?). Only mine is bright pink. I can set the buzzer to go off in intervals of any two lengths I want. When I got it in the mail, I set myself up to run for 6 minutes and walk for one. Then I went out for ten miles. Guess what???? I kept up an eleven minute and fifteen second pace. What? Me? So then the next day, with fasciitis screaming at me from below, I went for another ten mile run and kept up 11:45 – with a sore foot.

Now, don’t be snarky, you fast people (you know who you are). I’m well aware that 11:15 and 11:45 are still sloooowww miles. But the point here is that, by adding a one minute walk break every six minutes, I was faster for farther than I can typically run. So, I’m not promising anything this weekend, but I’m hopeful that this will be one of my faster marathons. I’ll eat my words (and a whole pile of French fries, too) if I’m wrong. Stay tuned.