Naysayers Can Suck It

"Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose." - Walt Whitman

I saw that quote on the Athlinks Facebook page.  It's perfect!  

I received my GLIRC magazine in the mail today.  My Brrrrooklyn Hot Chocolate race result was in there!  Pretty cool.  I love how they track every member's race results and print them. There are some fun articles written by members and a lot of information about upcoming races.   I have to decide on an April race soon.

Some chatter in the Runner's World forum about Hal Higdon's marathon training plans.  The original poster wrote, "I have never used his beginners plans, but seeing so many posts about them, I was curious so I checked them out.  I just dont see why he is considered the beginners guru.  Take the novice 1 for example.  Peaks at 35mi, 4 runs a week.  Would it really matter how you arranged 35miles in a week as long as one was kind of long and were all done at a moderate pace?  Sorry if I affend anybody with this. "   (Okay, the spelling error can be addressed at another time.  A big pet peeve of mine.)  There were over 50 responses, most of them defending Higdon.  I happen to be a big Higdon fan.  I followed his plans for my half and both full marathons.  A lot of his defenders on the thread, however, are the same people who dismissed him on other threads because of the low mileage.  I think many people on these message boards just like to be contrary.  I posted on there before my Baltimore Marathon asking for pacing advice to qualify for Boston (sub 3:45).  Everyone said it wasn't going to happen.  Not even a maybe, just flat out NOs.  My half and 10k times were too slow and if I'm following Higdon, pfft - forget it.  I should just shoot for a sub 4, if I'm lucky.  These responses came as a surprise.  One, I thought most of them were obnoxious, with one or two exceptions.  And two, they were all super confident in their predictions.  Well, I ran my race with three and a half minutes to spare and a negative split.  I felt great at the end so I knew it wasn't a fluke.  I had the fitness and the numbers to prove it.  Suck it, naysayers (If there were emoticon options here, this would be where the Middle Finger icon would be inserted).  

My advice to you new or new-ish marathoners looking for advice. Just be realistic about your goal.  Don't overestimate your fitness.  Run by feel, not by your clock.  And if you can stick it to all the people who said you couldn't, I'll help you with the largest stick I can find (Middle Finger icon, followed by Laughing Face)!