Stealing one from Philippides

Our hero fingerpicks a classical guitar in a salon in Paris. With a dramatic flourish, he ends a F# diminished appreggio, flamenco-style, with a resonant E major chord. The salon erupts in applause. Salma Hayek, wearing a fetching silky black dress, comes to the stage. With a delightful Latina accent, she leans in provocatively to our hero and whispers, "You're late".

Zounds! Our hero bolts awake: it's 6:22 am. He was supposed to be up at 5:45 am to head into St Louis city for the St Louis Marathon. With blazing speed, he grabs his clothes and is out the door, hurtling down i-70 in his red roadster.

Though 15 minutes late, and with no time to warm-up (or get nervous), our hero is soon trudging along the streets of St Louis. Using a technique known as the "run/walk", the goal is to improve on the pure-walk LA marathon in March with no injury to the delicate connective tissue of the foot and knee. The idea is to run a bit, walk a bit, repeat.

In stark contrast to LA, there is no fanfare, no companionship, no hotel room, and, well, no training. Some believe it is insane: "you can't just run/walk a marathon without putting in the miles. You have to respect the distance!". Philippides' ghost would not approve. (Philippides being the original runner from Marathon to Athens.)

The plan is to respect the distance, but also to push the boundaries.

And the boundaries were pushed: a finish-time of approximately 6 hours. The battleplan of "run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute" lasted until mile 15. Then it was throttled down to "run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes". By mile 18, it was "walk and mutter profanity for 5 minutes". Thankfully a boost at mile 20 and another at mile 24. And the sweet, sweet finish line.

Damage assessment is underway... So far so good: I think I stole one and got away with it.