Wineglass Marathon

In about 2 and a half weeks I'll be running my 15th marathon in the last 8 years. Returning to where it all began, back on October 6th 2002 at the Wineglass marathon between Corning and Bath. On that day i ran a miserable 4hours and 56 minutes, the whole time telling myself i was never going to do it again. Of course that changed on the drive home as i started to think about which one i would do next, and 7 months later i found myself in Pittsburgh doing it all over again.
Since that first marathon I've had some good marathons and some complete disasters. Like the time i had a serious chaffing issue at the Erie Marathon.

Yeah, that stings even today when i see it.
Or at the Richmond marathon in 2006, where i completely fell apart and completed the 26.2 miles in 5 hours and 58 minutes. It was a sunny morning and by the time i got to the finish the temps had soared to 85 degrees.

This picture is so bad on just so many levels, the fact that the clock reads over 6 hours is bad, worse is that back then i had no business running shirtless.
Anyways, this was also my first attempt at running a marathon barefoot. Although half way thru i had to put on my fivefingers, all of this just added to how horrible of an experience this marathon was. Oh well, live and learn.
I followed disaster with my first complete barefoot marathon in Buffalo the next spring, one of the best marathon experiences I've had to date.

 This brings me back to the Wineglass, which is the site of my personal best marathon so far. The 2007 marathon was the first time back since i first entered into the world of marathon running and my second totally barefoot marathon. I finished that day with a time of 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Now on to my 15th marathon and my 3rd Wineglass. I have been focusing on qualifying for the Boston marathon. To do that i need to finish in under 3:10 for 2011 and 3:15 for 2012, due to me turning 35 next year. Everything has been going very well and I've had one of the best running summers ever. I took 2 minutes off my 4 mile time at the Subaru Chase and then over Labor day weekend i took 3 minutes off my 15K time at the Fleet Feet run into Buffalo. The only problem is, I strained my calf during that last race and have only run one 10 miler since, In which i re aggravated the injury. So for now I'm just resting up and hoping i don't lose to much of what I've built up.