Well here are some noteworthy items of recent. I set a record for mileage run in a month in January.....346.1......an 11.1 average a day. That breaks the previous record of 346.0 set in 12/2004. That is also the third time I have surpassed 11.0 average a day in a month. the other time was 12/2003. Also in the month I set a record in mileage for a 7 day week......94.8 for 13.5 average a day. High mileage has been a regular thing for me in recent years so I was most thrilled by running my first "training marathon". I mapped out a 26.2 mile course....actually I mapped out a 31 mile course on Sunday, January 21st and ran 26.2 miles by myself on Monday, January 22nd. My time was 3:43:52 for a 8:32 mile average. I estimate though that I lost at least 8 minutes in the first 4 miles. I had to stop at about 2 miles because my camelbak water pack had slipped and completely twisted around and I could not fix it without stopping so I did for about 4 minutes. It happend again by the time I got to 4 miles....so I stopped again. The problem was that it was just too heavy with the 45 onces of fluid.....6 power gels......and like a fool I also had my cell phone in it. The second time I stopped I drank probably about 30 ounces and ate 3 power gels and that did the trick to lighten it enough to keep it from moving and twisting. In all I lost 8 minutes messing with it. I had no problems for the next 22 miles and did not have to stop again. My pace for those miles was around 8:15 so I think I would have done about a 3:35 or 3:36 easy..........just 5 minutes off a Boston qualifier.....not bad for a last minute run and zero tapering or loading. I felt great at the end of the 26.2 and know I had more miles in me so that gave my confidence to attempt 31 in the not very distant future. I bought a camelbak that holds 50 ounces but is in the back pack style....tried it on a 4 mile run and it worked great so I do not anticipate any hitches again that would cause me to stop......I hate to stop.