Canada's busiest highway – the 401 – runs between Windsor, Ontario and the Quebec border, where it morphs into Highway 20.

It's 828 kilometres long. Kilometre 0 is in Windsor. Just after you pass the 828 sign, you're in Quebec.

I know 500 of those kilometres really well, from countless trips between Montreal and Toronto, starting back in my university days - well over a few years ago. Let's just say a Pinto station wagon was involved.

That Pinto would get me from Montreal to what's now a long-abandoned Esso gas station outside of Napanee before I'd have to fill up. Gas seems to go a lot further these days.

I knew I was making good time if I'd get to Belleville in under two hours from Mississauga. From there, it was 80 K to Kingston and lunch – then another 80 K to Brockville. Cornwall's another 100 K or so. Then it was the home stretch to St. Laurent.

Like Jethro Bodine, I'd constantly be practicing my guzzintas and timeses. With 300 K in the books after two hours and forty-five minutes and 265 to go, I could make it to Montreal in 4:55, if I averaged 125 km/h, assuming one pee break and no cop with a quota to fill.

The Jethro approach has served me well running marathons. You see, there can be long stretches when you're putting in 42.2 K and you've got to keep your mind occupied.

I battle that by checking my watch every kilometer (or mile, depending on where I'm running). If the ol' digital readout is under four minutes at the first K, I risk turning into a comet and flaming out way too early.

Keep it around 4:30 or slower – despite the urge to shift into a higher gear – and things are off to a good start.

Five K at 22:30 and we're cruising speed. Keep it up and there's a good shot at coming in at 3:10 or better. Hit the 10 K mark at 45:00 or under means the pace is still good. At 46:00, there's a danger of adding five minutes to the finishing time.

Gotta pick it up, or rethink the goal.

It's crucial to keep your mind busy especially when you get to that no-man's land around 25 kilometres, when you realize just how far you've run. And how much farther you've got to go. Empty out the head and you've made room for negative thoughts to seep in.

It's like that on long training runs, too. More so when most of the pack you run with is endowed with more gazelle genes than you are. Before you know it, you're all alone, ciphering.

"Three guzzinta 6, twice. Four guzzinta 12, three times. If one runner sets out on a 35 K training run at 8:15 a.m. from the CN Tower in downtown Toronto and a second runner sets out at 8:35 a.m. from Lakeshore and Clarkson in Mississauga, and they're both running a 7:42 per mile pace, and one of them pulls a hammy after 16 K and there's no one to hear the scream, does it really hurt?"

You shake your head and clear the cobwebs when thoughts like that invade so you can visualize what you're working towards. You see the finish line of your upcoming race and you see the clock above that finish line – and the numbers it spits out are well under what you were planning to run.

Sometimes I just wipe my mind during those long, quiet miles - especially on those rare occasions when it feels like the feet are barely touching the ground. Wipe it, open a new document, and write this column.

Gotta get me one of those hand-held computers. The laptop's really cutting into my times, not to mention my quads.