I guess someone actually reads this blog.

Last Sunday I mentioned I was running another marathon in two weeks and that it would be fun to SURPRISE some friends who also are running this marathon...which happens to be the Tucson Marathon.

Yes sir, today my friend Dave called me up and said, hey, I was talking to Jim, and Jim asked about my training for Tucson...and he mentioned you're running it too. GULP, the cat's out of the bag! Gee thanks Jim! :>

But that's o.k., it was all in fun. Oddly though, I never mentioned  Tucson in last week's post, though I did mention it several times in Twitter.

So yes, 3 weeks post-Malibu Marathon and I am now about a week away from another marathon. Not a lot of tapering necessary for this marathon as I had about a 5 month illness-induced taper for Malibu. Since Malibu, I've been doing very moderate training, with an easy 15 miler last Sunday.

This is not my first time running the Tucson Marathon, but assuming all goes well it will be my first time FINISHING the race. About 8 years ago I DNF'd (Did Not Finish for those unfamiliar with this running acronym) at Mile 20 due to severe shin splints.

Shin splints is a rarity for me but I had them going into that race. That was a problem because the Tucson Marathon is one of the most severely downhill marathons in the country, with an elevation drop of over 2,000 feet and starting elevation close to 5,000 feet!

So I'm going into this race knowing that I'm nowhere near my peak, nearly 2 months away from any solid training. But having done a 26.2 miler 3 weeks ago and feeling recovered, I know I can cover the distance. The question is, can I go under 3 hours. We shall see. I'm a pretty good downhill runner but I haven't exactly trained for a downhill marathon.