Mr. Balboa
You're gonna eat lightning,
and you're gonna crap thunder!
Today was an easy (conversational) five-miler. To a seasoned ultra-marathon non-finisher such as myself, this really should feel easy. So easy, in fact, that the inner monologue can start feeding me some real delusions of grandeur.
Yeah, I was running my easy pace, and then the inner monologue starts humming “Gonna Fly Now.” From there, it’s only a matter of time before it’s all over. It starts with the visions of doing one-armed push ups, goes through the whole training montage from Rocky IV, you switch movies and imagine yourself running up those steps with half of Philadelphia behind you, and finally you catch yourself shadowboxing and running about a minute per mile faster than planned. Not a bad attitude, but a little too fast for an “easy day.”
Luckily, still felt good, so no need to over-intellectualize a fast training day. Guess the rest paid off. Call me in about 200 days to see if I still feel like a contender.
- Mileage Today: 5.5
- Mileage This Week: 7.8
- Mileage on Lake Patrol: 7.8
- Mileage To Date: A lot.
About Me
Hey everyone! I’m John Christensen, the top-ranked non-finisher at the 2025 Never Summer 60k. I’ll be running the 2026 Grandma’s Marathon in support of the American Cancer Society, a nationwide non-profit in operation since 1913 dedicated to eliminating cancer.
The “Lake Patrol” blog will catalog my training and some of my pontifications and bloviations. I intend to use this as a form of self-coaching, as well as a record of my state of mind that I might appreciate re-reading one day.
If you enjoy the blog, consider making a donation to the ACS on my personal page, directly to the ACS, or to a charity of your choice.