Did I mention Eli 23.3 is running a marathon two days after Thanksgiving? It's hard to keep up.
He called me three weeks ago and said his friend was going to run the Hamburg marathon in September/October but didn't because of illness. So they're going back together, have plotted a course accurate to the meter, and will run it in the very early hours of the 30th. He doesn't care about a t-shirt or a finisher's medal; he just wants the experience.
His training base is going to be low--maybe 25 miles a week--but I have decades of experience running low-mileage marathons (or used to), so we talked for a while about strategies. Marathons are all about making good decisions during the race.
If anyone can make good decisions in the moment, it's him, so he should be fine. He ran a half-marathon this morning at an easy pace and said it felt great, so he's adapting quickly to longer runs.
I told him I'll be thrilled when there's another member of the family marathon club.