Readathon: "Pre-race" thoughts

In a little under fifteen minutes, the October 2008 readathon begins. This will be my first readathon and I am a little excited about it. But, before it begins, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts.

1. Before being sidelined by a problem with my feet, I was a marathoner. When I ran them, I followed the Galloway method. Famous runner Jeff Galloway proposed that unless you were an elite runner, you would be better off completing the marathon by taking short walking breaks during the event. He suggested that you choose a particular ratio, for example 9 minutes running to 1 minute walking. I had a great deal of success following this method. What does this have to do with the readathon? Well, I guess what I am really trying to do is come out and say I will not be trying to read for 24 hours straight. Instead, my goal is to spend the majority of each hour reading, while taking small breaks through out the event.


2. Speaking of goals, I would also like to hedge my bets a little right from the start. While I would be thrilled to stay up for 24 hours and read, I am pretty sure that I am just too old to be able to pull it off. So, my goal is really to see just how long I can read. I suspect that I can make it 16-18 hours before falling asleep with a book on my face. Time will tell ...

Well, writing this has taken ten minutes, so the "horn" will go off in five minutes. I want to wish my fellow participates good luck. Let's all have fun!