A few months ago a close friend who grew up in Glendale but has lived in the Far East for a number of years asked me about how I trained for a marathon. That prompted me to write this summary "26.2 Training Tips For Your First Marathon." But he hadn't committed to a particular marathon at that point.

David and I are both in our mid 40s and he never really ran, though in recent years he took up cycling and started committing himself to the sport, waking up at 4 a.m. for long rides, shedding pounds, etc. Reminded me of ME in 1993 when I started running.

So I blurted in my reply email to David that if he commits (notice that word is a recurring theme), then I'll join him.  What the heck. Would be fun to support him in his first marathon while finding motivation to run it too.

Two weeks ago he emails me his registration form to the Singapore Marathon on December 5th. Discount early bird pricing if registered by June 4th. After obtaining spousal approval, without much more thinking...I SIGNED UP!

Here we are just 2 weeks later and race organizers say the marathon is completely full. Whew, glad I made the decision to sign up quickly!

I'm now signed up. But now I have to do the REAL work...TRAIN. I've been running at a base level of 30 to 35 miles per week this year. So today I went out for a 1 1/4 hour run and felt good...though my left knee problem is still there. Hmm, I'll have to work on that.

All for now....