February 1, 2009
Welcome to my marathon training blog! If you are at this site, you probably already know a little about me, but just for some background...
My name is Payam Saljoughian and I am a first year law student at Golden Gate University. All my life, I have been involved with swimming. I swam in college, where I was the team captain of the UC Santa Cruz Men's Swim Team. I was the head coach of a recreation swim team at the Moraga Tennis and Swim Club. I have been involved with swimming websites and was at the Olympic Trials as media last summer. Most recently, I swim on and off with the Orinda Aquatics Masters team.
However, after graduating from college, swimming took a back seat, and I looked to pursue some other athletic goals of mine. I always said that i wanted to run a marathon, but it always was more of something that I said rather than something that I did. Last summer, in between college and law school, I decided that I was going to train for a marathon. I took the summer off, and gave my self a well needed break between school and school and was determined to finish my first marathon. I trained all summer, and finished the San Francisco Marathon in 3:14.56. I was extremely happy with my time, seeing that it was not only my first marathon but my first running race of any distance. As excited as I was about my time, I was also a little disappointed because I missed qualifying for the Boston Marathon by less that 4 minutes. For my age group, a time of 3:10.59 qualifies for the prestigious Boston Marathon.
And that is where this blog begins (hence the title). My goal is to run a 3:10.59 or faster at the San Francisco Marathon on July 26, 2009 and qualify for the Boston Marathon. You may say that a 4 minute drop is not much, and you may be right, but qualifying for Boston is my current goal. Eventually, I would like to get under 3 hours, but being that I am spending this year doing one of the most academically challenging things you can do, time is also scarce these days. And anyways, running a 3:10 marathon is no walk in the park!!
There are 2 main reasons that I decided to start this blog. First, I plan on running the marathon for a cause. I do not know what charity or organization I will be running for quite yet, but when I make that decision, I will be asking for people to support the charity that I have selected. I feel that in asking for donations, it is only appropriate for people to be able to join me on my journey as well. Second, training for a marathon, like training for any athletic event requires discipline, organization, and hard work. Having a place to log my training will give me the confidence that I need, when I am able to look back on how hard I have worked towards my goal.
One of my favorite things about running is seeing all the familiar faces as I run around town. People constantly wave and give me encouragement, and I see people that I otherwise would never see. Unfortunately, I am usually trying to keep a certain pace, or run a specific distance without stopping, and I am unable to stop and chat. This blog will be a place where people that have seen me on the streets can give me encouraging and supporting messages on my way to SF, and hopefully Boston!
I plan on updating this blog once a week, probably every Sunday afternoon. I generally do my long runs on Sunday, so I figure it will be a good time for me to comment on my week of training, and that last long run. I will also do blogs here and there about anything else that is somewhat related such as nutrition, weight training, swimming, and even school and social stuff. However, I plan on keeping it specific to the purpose of the blog which is my Marathon goal.
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