Returning Home for The Marathon Experiment

It is Saturday noontime in China. I am presently on a flight from Chengdu to Shanghai. In Shanghai, I will connect to take my American Air flight back to Chicago. I will arrive around 4:45 PM on after gaining 13 hours.

I am very excited to be returning home to Chicago and my home in the suburbs. I miss my wife, my cats, my running gear, my bed, my house, my high-speed Internet connectivity, my coffee maker and private stash of Starbucks, my control over my schedule, my Itunes library, my car and my freedom to live in my own space and neighborhood.

I had a very successful and interesting visit in Chengdu during my assignment. The delivery of our final report to our business partners went exceptionally well yesterday. Quite simply, we nailed it. I could feel the genuine praise and appreciation for our team’s work the Chairman was giving, even though I needed an interpreter to understand him.

My experience in China has changed my perspective of the world in a positive way. I found that I am more adventurous, more patient, more understanding, more tolerant and downright wiser in the ways of the world than I was five weeks ago. It is so different in the Far East as compared to our Western lifestyles. The people of Chengdu are very kind. I also recognized how much I love my country and my way of life.

I even managed to recover reasonably well from the marathon. I ran 13 miles last week and added some swimming. I have run 21 so far this week. Two of these runs were 6 and 7 mile runs that were comfortably hard. However, I am not certain on pace since I left the Garmin at home. I plan to do 12-13 tomorrow on familiar terrain to get me to around 34 for this week.

I am signed up for another marathon that takes place in one week. It has been less than two weeks since a very difficult Chicago Marathon. What’s more, I need to turn around for the airport on Monday to fly to the Corporate HQ in Connecticut for four days. I suppose it beats being in China. I will do light mileage before Saturday.

I am calling this upcoming marathon an experiment. It will be a true experiment to see how my body has recovered. In addition, it will be a test as to what degree I was able to maintain my peak running conditioning that I know I had a short four weeks ago.

I honestly do not have a gauge of my current running condition. The Chicago Marathon was an anomaly. A statistical aberration created by extremely rare conditions, so that’s not an indicator. My 20-mile training run two weeks three weeks before was one that would likely line up in the 3:00-3:03 range. However, I have no idea what the difficult, intensively hot and humid Chicago Marathon did to me.

Am I in anywhere near the same shape that I was five weeks ago? We will find out next week. Truthfully, I am not all too worried about it. There is no self-induced pressure for me on this marathon go.

For this upcoming marathon on Saturday, you will hear no talk of a sub-3 attempt from me. I do really want to run a Boston qualifying time, however, and will give it my best shot. If I don’t, however, that’s OK. I will be out there enjoying the Chicago Lakefront with my wife cheering me on. It will be the first time ever that I will have completed two marathons 20 days apart. Most importantly, I am just glad to be getting home to the United States.