This Sunday, at 10 a.m., for the second time in my life, I’ll embark on a 26.2-mile journey through all 5 burroughs of New York City. I ran New York in 2001, right after Sept. 11.

Training this past week was unnervingly easy. It always is in the final week. You suddenly go from high mileage to relatively nothing to let the body rest up. It’s called tapering, and it feels like cheating.

On Saturday I ran 8.4 miles in 1 hour 12 minutes, cranking out the last 4.2 miles at about an 8:20 pace, which surprised me. On Tuesday I ran 4.5 leisurely miles with Dr. Ed Wolfgram, our first run together since his stellar finish at the Hawaiian Ironman three weeks ago. And tomorrow, I’ll run about 3.5 miles.

Following is a recap of information about me. Initially, I’d written a very long (yawn) ponderous blog that was to be titled, “Running marathons is narcissistic. So why do I do it?” But then the blog entry itself became narcissistic so I decided to spare you all.

• Registered runner: Cindy Gregorian
• New York Marathon Bib # 35272
• Age 42 (1 month from turning 43)
• Height: 5 feet 6; Weight: 135 lbs.
• Total marathons run: 6
• Fastest marathon to date: 4:09 at 2004 St. Louis Marathon
• Most recent marathon: 4:16 at 2007 Memphis Marathon
• Goal for NYC: 4:10
• Potential obstacles: A tight left knee and left Achilles tendon. Sore big toe on my right foot. Blips in my training involving 2 unfinished long runs. Jostling for position among hordes of runners.

Thanks for following along. Next week I’ll I have my final installment describing the marathon itself.