On November 6^th, I will be running the NYC Marathon for Margo. I have a personal best in NY of 2h49’14 established in 2003. I am using this marathon race as an opportunity to raise money for children cancer research and help beat that thing.

So, if you want to help beat children cancer, commit to donate money based on my finish time.

-If I run 3h15 – 3h00 then commit $1 per mile or $26 dollars (euros for the euro-zone)

-If I run 3h00 – 2h49’14 then commit $2 per mile or $52 dollars

-If I break my 2h49’14 personal best then commit $4 per mile or $104 dollars

Your help is needed and would be very much appreciated. I am not in the shape I was in 2003 but I am trying to make the most of the remaining training weeks. This being said, it is unlikely that I will run a new personal best this year but I believe I can break 3 hours.

If you want to make a commitment to donate money, just send me an email that indicates your intention. Also, if you want to help me raise money or join me in my training runs you are welcomed. I can use all the help I can get.

Thank you.

Pascal Lauffer,

FaceBook event page:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146595978765482

If I want to achieve anything, I have to break most of the rules of marathon training. I don’t have the luxury of time therefore I will use choc therapy instead.

Here is my 10 point choc therapy marathon training program:

1/ Immediately increase weekly mileage by a factor of 4 to reach 50-55 miles and then increase mileage to 70-75 within 3 weeks

2/ Shoehorn a 20 mile run within a week at 7’30’’ per mile pace if possible but with the main priority of finishing the 20 miles

3/ Race the Bronx half marathon on August 28 aiming at 1h22 and then add 7 miles easy to reach 20 miles

4/ Run the 18 mile tune up race on September 25th at 3h marathon pace

5/ Race the Greet Great Gallop Half marathon on October 01 aiming at a sub 1h20

6/ Forget all ambition for Chicago on October 9^th and make it a training run aiming at 3h00

7/ Take a full resting week after the Chicago

8/ Resume training for the last 3 weeks cutting down volume while keeping intensity

9/ Aim at breaking my NYC marathon PR of 2h49’21’’

10/ I will keep the last one a secret just in case…

Let’s see how well that will go! I will keep you posted.

Pascal,

I am back. I must admit. I have been in a hole lately. Life sometime has a way to
kick you in the gut and kick you again when you are on your knees. It happens to all of us eventually. It happened to you early, too early. It is an understatement to say that life has not been kind to you lately. There is no need to talk about the why or the fairness of it. It is what it is and the only thing you can do is fight for what is yours, fight for your life.

Last year, I ran the Paris Marathon for you. You were with me all the way and especially during the hardest moments. I broke the 2h45 barrier that had eluded me for so long. I had never run that far that fast in my life. The “Go Margo” of the crowd helped me keep pushing although I knew I was in trouble. In the end, I broke 2h45 by just 7 little seconds.

You know that I am not the kind of person who jumps up and down in joy. I must say though that I was happy and proud. I knew you were on the finish line and I was committed to reaching my goal for you. I could not have let you down. There was always that little door in my head. The one you want to open when things get too hard. The one that would make everything stops. The one written “give up” on it. I managed to keep it closed although I was still fighting for seconds after hours of effort. You helped me keep this door closed and you helped me succeed.

The Paris Marathon is only 2 months away. This year again I will be “Running For Margo”. I am still recovering from an ankle injury and can barely run 1 hour for now. I am in the worst shape I have been in years but I will do it. I will run with your father and I will try to stay with him as long as I can.  This will be in preparation for my next event. I have 4 months to get in shape for Nice Ironman.  I don’t know yet how I am going to pull this one out but I will. This is something I must do in esteem to your courage fighting cancer.

GO MARGO

Pascal,

Hi everybody,

First order of business – Happy New Year 2010 to all –

Your friends and family have already wished you everything else, so me, I will wish you something uncomfortable. Yes, that would not be me otherwise.

I wish you, for 2010,

“to be all you can be, or at least, to try to be all you can be”.

Here you go! This should be a little uncomfortable.

Second order of business – Looking back on 2009 –

I wished you last year to do something worthy to remember in 2009. I hope you did. Years have a terrible habit to fly by and if we don’t make an effort to make them special in some ways they disappear not to ever be remembered. That’s why I really hope you did do something worthy to remember in 2009 because it would have been a big giant waste otherwise. So did you? More uncomfortable moments?

If I look back on my 2009, I did have a great start of the year. I started by winning my age group at the Fred Lebow Classic in Central Park (also finished 22 overall), before finishing 8 overall at the Ice Trail in France (my very first trail race) and running my best 15Km ever in CP finishing 15 overall (53’50’’ or 5’47’’ pace). I went on to reach my first key objective of the year, breaking 2h45 at the Marathon. It was in April in Paris. I gave all I had and ran the distance in 2h44’53. I had finally done it at my fourth attempts. The year was looking promising indeed.

Sport is definitely a school of humility. After Paris, it basically all went wrong. Work, injuries, life, all got together rendering everything else I did in sport in 2009 mediocre. I simply missed all my other year objectives, all of them. I did nothing worthy mentioning in triathlon. I even got my cherished time trial bike stolen. I made little progress swimming and I did not manage to keep up with my bike training. I refused to stop running despite a severe tendonitis and I insisted on racing the NYC marathon injured. I dropped at mile 18 and I am still struggling today to rid myself of the injury. Being an experienced runner does not make me a smart runner evidently. I finally got the message and I did next to nothing in November and December. My only noticeable achievement is to have put on a good 8 pounds, at steady 1 pound a week.

Third order of business – So, what for 2010?

This is indeed the time of the year when not only it is OK to dream, but it is almost a requirement to do so. Let’s do it but let’s be reasonable. A lot will be changing in my life in 2010. I am taking a new job and I am moving back to Paris. This should change my routine a little and will definitely impact my ability to train.

There is a big Running For Margo event at the Paris Marathon in April. Many of my friends will make the trip to support Margo in her fight against her brain tumor. I was hoping to break my PR again but with my ankle still hurting today this won’t be possible. Instead I have decided to run it in preparation for Ironman Nice. Nice is a beautiful race made for me with a challenging bike and a fast marathon. I don’t see how I will put the hours that I would usually put for an Ironman but we shall see. I am still committed to, one day break 10 hours at the Ironman but it is unlikely to be in 2010. I will also probably do Half-Ironman Monaco in September but that’s about all the triathlons I will do in 2010.

I will try to join a good swimming club in Paris. I need a mean coach that will kick my butt and take me to the next level. I have been on a plateau for a few years and this needs to change. I want to see some new PR in the pool and open water.

I don’t know yet if I will do a fall marathon. If I do, it will be to break my 2h44 PR. In any case, I must keep my outstanding half marathon/15K streak going (2006-1h18, 2007-1h17, 2008-1h16 and 2009-1h15). I guess I have no choice but to go after a 1h14 half-marathon or a 52’ for 15K in 2010. I must admit that these times seem awfully fast but…

Finally, I want to keep on contributing to Warren Street Master team. We are again in 2009 the best Master Team in town. I did little for the team this year and it may be challenging for me to contribute in 2010 as I will be in Paris. Yet, I will make it a priority to be there when they need me.

Voila, enough dreaming for now and let’s start to execute.

Happy 2010 to all,

Pascal,

So guess what? Since Paris I have not one single interesting performance to report. The only good surprise was the Monaco Half Ironman.

I had signed up at the last minute and it was more for spending the weekend with Olivier and the gang than for racing. I had decided to take it easy and enjoy the day. I avoided the brutal fight in the water by swimming way outside. This was real cool. I felt great. I did not stress a bit. I enjoyed the swim like never before. If it wasn’t for my new one piece suit that tore through my right shoulder skin, it would have been perfect. Well, perfect until I saw the time. It was my worst performance ever. By the time I had gone through T1 and finally mounted my bike, 45 minutes had passed since the gun shot. It was so bad that it took all the remaining pressure off. I began the bike smiling with the attitude of a Californian surfer on reefer. The result was actually much better than expected. For a guy with basically no mileage on the bike and not a care in the world, I rode the course in 2h57. It was off my best but still a very descent time for Monaco. Then came the run. With a 4 inch cut on my shoulder there was no way I could wear a top. I rolled down my one piece and started the run topless. To my great surprise, I felt stronger than ever before in a triathlon run. Except for the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd guys and Benoit Z (who was doing the run leg of a relay) nobody passed me. That was awesome. I eventually got stopped by a referee for running topless. After negotiation and after he saw my injury the guy accepted to let me resume the run but wearing one arm of my one piece. It was not comfortable but it was better than being pulled out of the race. Despite all that I still managed a 1h23 half marathon, nice…. The final time was just under 5h10 and earned me an honorable 152nd overall position.

It was a few weeks after Monaco that my left Achilles started to bother me. It has not stopped since then. This painful injury took my running mileage down to 30 to 40 miles a week. This is not the sort of mileage needed to prepare for a Marathon. I ran the Grete’s Great Gallop half Marathon again this year but contrary to last year there was no miracle. I finished in 1h20 limping across the finish line. Since then, I only kept some key training sessions but mainly focused on resting my left Achilles. It has not paid off yet and with 10 days left before the NY marathon, all hope to compete against Stephane and Peter are gone.

So what now? Frankly, I don’t know. I am going to race the NY Marathon for sure but I don’t know if I should even have a time ambition. Eric just did a 2h48 in Chicago. Alex will run the Marine Corps Marathon this coming week end and I will keep an eye on his time too. My best time in NY is 2h49 and of course I did 2h44 in Paris earlier this year. For the Warren Street team, Fabio will go for 2h45 and Stephane and Peter will go even faster. Olivier, my ever present partner in crime, will probably run a 3h10. Hopefully I will finish somewhere in the mix. Let’s hope my Achilles will let me finish.

It is time for me to find the purpose that will fueled my race.

Pascal,