Returning to the marathon.

 This post is just to give some of you followers a little background on my experience with the marathon.  I began running 42 years ago in 1977 and soon after decided I wanted to run a marathon. I finally felt I was ready and entered the Columbia (SC) Marathon in Mid February of 1981. A few days before I came down with the flu and wasn't able to race so I signed up for the Wilmington marathon 3 weeks later. Unfortunately I was still congested in the lungs and weakened and my experience in the race was not so good with cramping and walking the last few miles. I finished in 3:59:05 and was so sore afterwards I decided not to run another one for a few years.
  Then life decided it would be a lot longer. Fast forward to 2002 and  it was after running my first 50k in Feb before finally running another marathon. This was the beginning of my long distance era and over the next 13 years I ran over 80 ultras and 50 marathons before choosing to run shorter distances when I turned 60. From 2016 and my last time racing Boston my mileage had begun a steady decline and the once a year marathons  that I did run , I was woefully under-trained for and of course I haven't raced an ultra since Dec 2015.
 As a result of the lower mileage and little racing long distance over these past several years, any endurance and muscle memory for the marathon is long gone. This return will be like starting over with the exception that I do have the experience and know what is needed and how to do it.
 This will be a short marathon build up with only 13 weeks to train for the Tobacco Road Marathon which I've entered with the hopes of qualifying for Boston. I'm not too concerned with that though because since giving the run top priority in my training since July when I quit going to 5 or 6 yoga classes a week I have gotten my weekly average mileage up to the mid 30's per week and hit the low 40's a couple of times so I have a good base to build on.
 I've got my training plan in place and it will began with at least a 12 mile run this Saturday Dec.14th and go from there. I'll be posting weekly updates so stay tuned. Boston 2021, I'm coming for you.