What's the Deal With 47172?

Okay, some of ya’ll may already know what this means. That is my bib number, or racer number, for the Paris Marathon. I officially entered. I’m ready to rock & roll. I did this on September 15th. I was the 400th –ish person to sign up. I knew if I waited, I was leaving myself opportunity to back out. I cannot & will not back out now!

I don’t know what the deal is with having this bib number, but as I am running, I keep saying it to myself. Am I weird? I guess it’s just another motivator… it does have its drawbacks though.

I keep thinking that just may be the spot I finish the run at! I have not, nor will I ever claim to be, a speed demon when it comes to running. Our land lady told my wife one day, while they were sitting at the park & I was running the streets in our village, “Schnell laufen,” which literally means quick run. I do not agree with that. I am planning on trying to keep an average 10 minute mile pace throughout my training. I think I am averaging about 9:41 per mile right now across 4 miles. I need to get that time down a good bit if I want to average 10 minute miles across 26.2 miles though.

I’m going to try my best, but I signed up in the category for runners that are shooting for 4 hours 30 minutes or more for the course. The worst thing about that… the bibs are pink! Those of you who truly know me, you know that this is a big downer for me! I wouldn’t even consider pink shirts when they were “cool” a couple years ago. For me to voluntarily wear something pink, you know I must be determined. In all reality though, I did convince 2 of my co-workers in the Ramstein Ground Controlled Approach Facility to run the Paris marathon too. SSgt Rebekah Cruz & SrA Tyler Bisenius. Bisenius, although he said he is shooting for the same time range as me, refuses to have a pink bib number. He chose the grey range, which is either 4 hours flat, or 4 hours 15 minutes, I can’t remember which right off hand.

Needless to say, I am stuck on 47172 right now. It seems to be all the numbers revolving around the marathon though. I see this sign on the hill above our village all the time that says "Kaiserslautern – 15km."  I think to myself, I will be running from that sign, to Kaiserslautern, back to the sign, then BACK to Kaiserslautern again! I even find myself charting distances as I am driving to see if I can use the path as one of my run routes. I have yet to decide to run up the monster hill behind our house, but we will see if I decide to conquer if during my training!

That picture is taken from the cemetery in Bahn, which is opposite of the way I normally run on my training runs. The windmill on top of the hill sits on the hill above our house. Our house sits maybe 3km down a winding, beat to death road, at the base of that hill. It’s 8% grade up for 2 miles with 3 switch-backs; then again back down the beast! I need to get my GPS & figure out exact specs on that hill's elevation. Maybe you’ll just see it on one of my run profiles one of these days… alongside a picture of me laying in a casket cause that thing will probably kill me!