My recovery from the Malibu Marathon on November 14th has gone about as well as any marathon I've ever run. One week post-marathon, I was running 6-7 miles pain free and my training was pretty much back to normal this past week.

This weekend, I ran 1 hour, 33 minutes on Saturday and 1 hour, 50 minutes on Sunday, a total of 27 miles. There's a bit of soreness in my left leg, but I think that's more due to my half day of yard work yesterday.

The best recoveries mirror the best tapers, slow and gradual. I think I was able to do this. This is one area where experience truly pays off. I've injured myself way too many times the month after running a marathon, thinking I was invicible as my body is struggling to repair all the micro-tears.

My quick recuperation made me feel yesterday that I left "too much on the table" at Malibu. Though I gave it my best effort, a 3:05 for me was slow and reflected the dryness of the day, some dehydration, my battle with illness for a month and some challenging hills on the course. But my recent 5K time told me I "should" be able to run a marathon in the 2:50 to 2:55 range.

Looking back, I've run 28 marathons since 1994. I keep telling people I've run 25, having lost track. Only 2 marathons (Malibu and last year's Santa Barbara Marathon) in the last 5 1/2 years, largely paralleling the growth of my family.

Three times I have run back to back marathons within 6 weeks of one another. The last time I did this was 1999, where I ran a 2:45 Cleveland Marathon then 3 weeks later I ran a 2:40 Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego. Don't know how I did that.

It generally is not a good idea to do much racing 2 to 3 weeks after running a hard marathon. But if you feel good after 4 weeks, heck why not.

So yesterday I decided what the heck, I'm going to run one more marathon before the end of the year. This marathon is 2 weeks from today. I have the approval of my wife, so I'm good to go and signed up.

I know some other people running this marathon and, unless they read this blog (which they probably don't, since only 7 people read it I think), I thought it would be fun to surprise them when I show up at the race.

Nothing serious...just having fun. Yes, just another nutty marathoner I am.  But all I really want is a 2:59:59 or faster marathon, since it has been 6 years since ran under 3 hours, geezer that I am.