Truly, an achievement

I had been following Lance's preparation somewhat over the last couple of months when I heard about him wanting to run at the NYC marathon. It really did interest me, as I was anxious to see if he could make a transition to a different endurance sport. I initially figured he could go under 3 hours, but after thinking for a while, thought that if his training was consistantly in the 60-70 miles per week range that he could go much faster. His lung capacity certainly wasn't going to be the limiting factor. He didn't disappoint.

Being a former competitive distance runner myself, I can say with absolute authority that a first-timer, doing it in under 3 hours is just spectacular.

When I was running the mile in track and 5k cross-country meets in high school, it always seemed like the opportunity just was never timed right, what with most of the better courses being in other cities, and the KC marathon is always in the middle October, the heart of the fall CC season, a no-go. I never ended up running one, though I did run a half once, right after graduation, and assuming the typical percentage slowdown on a second half, I theoretically could have gone just under 2:40, as I recall. It didn't seem like an important goal to have at the time, as I knew that my talents were at shorter distances and my training thusly followed. I no longer have the inclination to put in those miles, nor do I have the time, but looking back at the whole thing now, I wish that I would have tried it. Just once.