Two hours, fifty-four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.

Two hours, fifty-four minutes and fifty-nine seconds. I have never seen that time on a clock next to a finish line. I have never been fast enough to finish a marathon in that time or slow enough to limp across a half-marathon finish line with that time showing. Somehow, despite 168 career races, I've managed never to run a race between 13.11 miles and 26.22 miles. That last point is something that I will be addressing in 2013, but not really the point of this blog at the moment.

This is the story of my journey towards seeing that 2:54:59 as I complete the Cox Marathon in Providence, RI on 5/12/13. Actually, I’m not all that concerned about seeing the exact time because there will be a bit of time between when I last see the clock and when I cross the line and there will also be a difference in time between my gun time and my chip time. To continue to make a short story long, what I’m getting at is that my goal for this marathon is a sub 2:55:00 chip time.

Do you like that? I managed to stretch out something as simple as saying how fast I want to run the Providence Marathon into two paragraphs, and right now I’m adding a third paragraph to summarize those two unnecessary paragraphs! So if you’re at work and are so ridiculously bored that you’ve already read the entire internet and looked at the picture of every possible permutation of kitten plus inanimate object, then this is the blog for you.

So here’s what’s to come:

Training! My current marathon PR is 3:17:30. I ran this at the Manchester City Marathon one week after falling apart at Cape Cod to the tune of 3:40:31. My only other marathon in 2012 was the Marathon de Napoli where I finished in 3:48:32. My fastest half marathon in 2012 was 1:31:49. So what evidence do I have that I can get to <2:55:00? Why do I think that I can chop 22:30 off of my marathon PR and run both halves of the race 4:19 faster than my fastest half marathon from 2012? To be honest, it’s more of a want than an expectation. I believe that the only difference between a 2:55:00 marathoner and a 3:17:00 marathoner is training, so most of this blog will be about training.

Racing! What can I say about race reports? Everyone likes to write them, and by everyone I mean some people some of the time. I’ll try to write more of a review of the course, the swag, the organization and so forth than about my run. Race reports can turn into a list of splits really fast; I’ll try not to go there.

Gear! I’m currently doing most of my training in the Saucony Lightspeed. I will have a review of this shoe up sometime in the next two weeks as it finishes wearing out. My next trainer is the Adidas Adizero Adios. I’ll post some pictures and thoughts out of the box and then a review around 250 miles and when it breaks down. Along the way, I’ll be trying to find the perfect marathon shoe. I expect to run through 3-4 pairs of trainers in the next 4 months leading up to Providence. My spikes and racing flats are old as hell, so I’m not going to review them, but I’ll review my new gear as it comes up. Every review will cover, comfort, durability, speed, price and the eventual cost per mile.

Injuries! Some readers may like to hear what I do to avoid injuries and how I treat them, but because I’m not actually any good at either of those two things this will be more of a Schadenfreude section where you can read about me riding the waaambulance and making excuses.

Pasta! I like to cook and eat pasta. It really has nothing to do with running but I might post something anyway.

Running in exotic places! Thus far, I've run or raced in the 11 States, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ecuador, South Korea, Peru, Singapore, and Taiwan. From the heat and humidity in Singapore, to the easy miles on the Elbe in Dresden, Germany, every run in every location is different, perhaps none so much as Taiwan where I was fed Pig Testicle Soup post run one day. I’ll tell you where to run outside, where to stick to the treadmill and where to insist on a menu with English translations.

So that’s what this is all about.

Who: Me, James DeLuca, a guy with a 3:17:30 marathon PR trying to run <2:55:00.

What: A log of my training, my gear, my races and my life.

Where: I have no idea where the server is located that’s hosting this blog. Fortunately, you can find it just by going to the URL at the top of the page. Chances are, you already know where it is because you’re reading this right now.

When: When I’m bored and feel like posting something. That probably means I’ll shoot something off on my lunch breaks during the week or after my long run or race on the weekend.

Why: Following a training plan requires building in rest time. If I can’t run I might as well write about running. Also, posting my thoughts about running might help me stop annoying my wife by talking about running constantly.

How: By typing things?

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!