The Long Run

Today's joggling mileage: 21 miles

Every Sunday I do a long joggle as part of my marathon training. Today I used the small yellow Higgins Brothers beanbags that I'm going to use in the race.

After a double espresso and some muesli I took off at 7:45 a.m. At 8:30 I met up with some of my Longboat Roadrunners running club friends and we all ran to a local cemetery to do some two-mile loops.

Cemeteries are perfect for winter training because there is virtually no traffic, and they always clear the roads of snow and ice. We measured out a nice training loop at Pine Hills cemetery in the northeastern corner of Toronto. I've run this loop hundreds of times over the past five years and have memorized all the potholes. There's something very comforting about a familiar route. When I first started joggling ,I felt a little uncomfortable about juggling in a cemetery. It felt weirly inappropriate. I'm used to it now – entertaining the dead.

I clicked off four cemetery laps for eight miles at an average of six minutes per mile. Not bad. To break the world record of 2:52, I need to average 6:33/mile for the whole marathon. Can I do it? Definitely maybe.