Paul Litwin's Blog

My marathon career started when I was 14 while a  freshman at Archbishop Molloy High School in NYC. I had run cross-country and  indoor track and there was a bit of gap before outdoor track was to start. My  brother Bill and some of his friends decided they were going to run in the  Earth Day Marathon that April in 1973. Bill, 2 years older than me, was  always up for a challenge and I said what the heck. Up to that point, I think  the longest I had ever run was maybe 9 miles but heck 26 didn't sound too  bad. I finished the race that windy, snowy April day in just under 4 hours,  swearing I would never run another marathon again.

I ran Earth Day 3 more  times in high school, running 3:24 as a sophmore, setting a PR of 3:09 in  1975 when I was in my junior, and DNF'ing because of a heel injury in my  senior year.

Just googled "Earth Day Marathon" and found this reference to the first Earth Day race I ran in 1973 in a June 26, 2007 article in Long Island Newsday by John Hanc (http://www.hamptonsmarathon.com/Stories/Documents/Newsday%20Article%206.26.07.doc):

... staged 34 years ago, in March, 1973, at the old Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury. It was called the Earth Day Marathon.
…
The Earth Day race was a spin-off of a race staged in prior years in Central Park (and before that in the Bronx) by the New York Road Runners. Held in the very early days of what would become known as the 1970s running boom, the race evinced the spirit of that time, and not only in its celebration of the then-nascent environmental movement.
 
The Earth Day Marathon, a loop course around the raceway (note: the author is wrong with this bit of history; the race started and finished at the raceway but then moved to 3 loops around Eisenhower Park), was tough and so were the competitors, as suggested by the words of founding race director Paul Fetscher: "Whatever kind of day it is, the weather will be a challenge," he told reporters, "and veteran die-hard runners will not shrink away from it, but fight it."
 
He was right. In conditions that the winner, Larry Frederick, would describe as "horrid," biting March winds reached 30 miles per hour, while temperatures sank to the freezing mark. Yet 400 runners battled through it, displaying determination if not great fashion sense.

… The marathon world, however, seems to be getting more and more crowded. When the Earth Day Marathon began, it was probably one of only 10 26.2-mile road races in the entire country...

Fast forward 28 years to 2003. After many years of off again, on again  running, I finally got serious about doing another marathon, having joined a  local running group (ChuckIt) run by Chuck Barlett in 2002. Unfortunately, my  first adult effort at Capitol City in Olympia blew up on me. I was cruising  in 3:22 pace through mile 17 when it all started to unravel; suffice it to  say I hit the wall (I prefer that metaphor to the more trendy "bonk") hard  but still managed to walk away (literally for several miles) with a 3:37. In 2004, I ran a bit more conservatively but still managed a visit with the wall and came in somewhere between 3:50 and 4:00. Two bad experiences in a row. Damn.

Right after that I started having severe pain in the ball of my left foot  right below the pinky toe. This continued to bother me for some time so I  laid off of running for a long while after getting an MRI, various other tests, therapies, orthotics, and treatment from various podiatrists, doctors, physical therapists, and massage therapists. I  continued to lay off of running, eventually taking up biking. At one point  late in 2005 I started running again, but was quickly sidelined with  a similar injury in my right foot after a couple of months. At this point, I  decided to learn to swim and took up training for sprint triathlons in early 2006, running two in the summer of 2006 and three in the summer of 2007. (I can't say  enough good things about Mary Meyer Life Fitness in teaching me to swim and  getting me in great triathlon shape.)

So after a successful triathlon summer and remaining injury free, I decided  to set my signts on the Seattle Half Marathon. I started training again with  ChuckIt. Training went  pretty well and I ended up running a respectable 1:37 on the grueling  Seattle Half-Marathon course. The weather was great in 2007 but I  have to say that the course is a killer. There's just way too many hills but  I ran well, managing to hold a pretty steady 7:30 pace pretty much  the whole race.

At that point, Peter (my younger brother) said he was doing the Eugene  marathon in May. I felt good coming off of Seattle, so I decided to start  training for Eugene. 

Training over the next four months went well. I did my second 20 miler 5 weeks prior to the race and was planning to do another one 3 weeks out but at 4 weeks before the race my left foot started hurting again after a 13 miler. Same pain at same location as before. My physiscal therapist, Bruk at Real Rehab  (highly recommended) fashioned a quick orthotic to try and take some pressure  off the foot and I took a full week off, substituting hard workouts on the  eliptical trainer for running. Meanwhile, my confidence took a dive; still I  managed to stay smart and combined running with eliptical work so that I  didn't lose too much fitness for the race. After all, this happened during  the last month which was always the month of the taper.

I took the Friday before the race off and Suzanne, Anna, Matthew, and I drove  down to Eugene--technically I did all the driving but you get the point.  Saturday, we went to the expo and I got my number, went to Eugene's version  of the farmer's market and generally had a relaxing day. We hooked up with  Peter (my brother), Gerry (his friend), and Cassandra (Gerry's friend) for  dinner at the Oregon Electric Station. I had vegetable lasagna and lots of  bread but no beer to cap off a sucessful week of carbo loading.

After dinner, Gerry, Cassandra, Peter, and I visited Hayward field (the exulted center of the running universe where Steve Prefontaine, et al trained and raced) at the U of O. When we were done checking out the course and discussing the finer points of running and having to go potty during the race they dropped me off at my hotel.

Before going to sleep, I mapped out 3 points on the course (at miles 7, 17,  and the finish) with approximate times for Suzanne and the kids to meet me. I  went to bed and after a half hour or so of tossing and turning managed to get  a good 6 hours of sleep. 

Race day events captured in separate post.