Getting started and table of contents

Welcome to my blog! I'm a 33 year old runner and have been training for marathons and now triathlons for the past 2 years. I originally started this blog as a record in my ongoing quest to  meet the qualifiying time standard (3hrs 10 minutes) for entry into the competitive Boston Marathon, which was a time goal that seemed absolutely impossible after I finished my first marathon in 4 hours. With continued serious training of up to 70 miles+ per week, I have gotten to 3:16 in 2008, within striking distance of the BQ time. Unfortunately, I was then sidelined with a stress fracture of my foot, and now am clawing my way back into form. I've since developed a love for the triathlon, and am balancing my BQ goal with my different goal of becoming a good triathlete. So despite the name of this blog being "Marathoning with Willis",  it would be better titled "Running and Triathloning with Willis!" 

For those of you who are new to the blog, here's an overview of how to get a more coherent story of my running and triathlon chronicles.


1. About me as a runner - A good start to my running background prior to my new life as a marathoner.

2. About me balancing my busy life as a radiology medical resident in training and running 70 miles per week. Since radiology is my career, and heavily influences my running schedule, I describe it more detail here.

3. San Francisco Marathon Race Report - My third marathon and my biggest, most important race to date. It's a monster-length race report, and was responsible for starting this whole blog. Feel free to skip to the end if you'd like, it still should be a fun read.

4. How I improved from a 4:09 marathon to a 3:19 marathon in about 4 months using the Pete Pfitizinger 18 week/70miles per week program from his book "Advanced Marathoning."

5. Picture Tour of Santa Monica - Lots of photos of my main running route in Southern California. It's quite beautiful!

6. 2007 Wrapup and Training Recap. I reflect on my hard training and running accomplishments of the past year, as well as my unexpectedly wonderful experiences on the online forums and blogging.

7. 2008 Wrapup and Training Recap. A tough but overall successful year for me, with a 3:16 marathon (still no BQ), an incredibly frustrating stress fracture, and importantly, the start of my life in triathlon.

8. Marathon Questions. Some random questions and my answers about marathoning. 

See the blog archive on the right hand side of the page for other assorted tidbits, thoughts, and race reports. Drop me a line (comments at the bottom of the page) any time - I love hearing from everyone!


Thanks for reading -
Willis