Day 663 -- Jogger's Progress (and TIaRT)

	Trip	YTD	Jul
Distance	3892.8	966.8	153.8
Time	25 days, 8 hrs, 6 min	6 days, 18 hrs, 31 mins	26:43
Days	66	149	21
States	15	2	1

This week's theme for Take It and Run Thursday at Runners' Lounge is "Look Back, Look Ahead". How fortunate for me that it happens to fall on the last day of the month, when I would naturally check "Jogger's Progress."

For the benefit of newer readers, a quick summary of what this is all about: In January, 2006, I started laying out my mileage on a U.S. map, starting at the Empire State Building. Click on "Jogger's Map" to the right to see my monthly progress. In May of this year, I arrived at my original goal, Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Since then, I've been running up the California coast. I am now close enough to Oregon to smell the fresh air. (By state law, there is no fresh air in California.)

In the last two and a half years, I have greatly extended my mileage. That first month, I ran only 85 miles, and my high for 2006 was 139 miles. I've surpassed that three times already in 2008. The first year, I was averaging 5 to 6 miles per run. This month, I averaged 7.3 (and in April, 2008, I averaged almost 8.)

I have also run my first road race (a 5K), my first 10K, my first half marathon, and my first marathon. I've run 11 official races, and many, many miles in training.

What's ahead for JogAmericaBlog? My plan at this point is to run up to Washington, then head east, hitting every state north of my original path. Then I will run down the East Coast, and run back west, hitting the remainder of the 48 continuous states. Then what? Down through Mexico to South America? Up through Canda to Alaska, and across the Bering Strait to Asia? Europe? Antarctica? Mars? I don't know. But it will be 4 or 5 years before I have to decide.

My second marathon will be the IMT Des Moines Marathon, on October 19. (Before that, I'll run two other races, a 5K in Madison this weekend, and a half marathon in Dubuque on Sept 1.) After that, I'm not sure. I didn't make the lottery for the Zoom Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon in Northfield, Minnesota in January, so my next marathon will be in the spring. There is a new marathon in Eau Claire this spring. I'm attracted by the thought of participating in the very first running of a new race, but it's not the most convenient weekend for me. Both the Pine Line Marathon in Medford and the Madison Marathon would be better weekends. I've also got my eye on Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, which is later, in June.

The one thing that I do know is that I will keep on getting up in the morning, lacing up my sneakers, and going out for a run. I'm way, way too addicted to quit.