In four months, I am running a marathon. This just hit me the other day. I have run lots of half marathons (maybe 12-15, not sure), so I decided the next logical step was to sign up for a marathon. However, it just occurred to me that a full marathon is twice the length of a half marathon. Obviously, I understood this before, but the gravity of this fact hit me all at once. A full marathon is like running a half marathon and then running back to the start. So a half marathon is not a huge challenge for me, but a full marathon sometimes seems a bit much. I am wishing there was a 2/3 marathon or even a 3/4 marathon.
Tomorrow I will run 10 miles. I've run 10 miles many times before but it will be the first time I've done this distance since last fall. I've been tired, so I didn't run yesterday or today after doing a few 5-6 mile runs earlier this week. I did teach aerobics last night and this morning, so I have gotten some workouts in. I'm also making an effort to eat the right things so I don't make my runs harder than they have to be.
The funny thing about training for a marathon is that there are times when I think 26.2 is not a big deal. Lots of people have done it before. I am disciplined enough to do the training, and (during the summer) I have the time to do the training. I will be fine. Then there are moments when I wonder what the heck I am doing. It's not even that I wonder IF I can do it but I wonder why I would want to do it. I don't really think running a marathon is crazy. If anything is crazy, it's the training. It's going out on a Saturday morning by yourself to run 20 miles by yourself. Can I do that? And why would I want to do that? There's never an in-between. Either I am thinking it's no big deal or I am questioning why I decided to take this on. 100% one way or the other.
I have a lot of things going for me. I am generally good with goals. When I set a goal, I follow through. I've been healthy recently--no issues with my IT bands for a while. I have support from my husband (who will run with me some). I've read a lot about distance running, so I am hopefully educated enough to not make major mistakes in training. And I've learned some lessons by making mistakes in the past, of course. The other thing I have going for me is that I don't have a goal time. It's a success if I run it. I am not trying to run it in under 4 hours (I probably won't--my guess is 4:20 or something like that). I don't want to set a goal time and not reach it, and then be disappointed when I should be celebrating running a marathon. Besides, what difference does my time really make? I am never going to finish first or last. I am always going to be somewhere in the middle of the pack.
I also have some challenges. First of all, I'm not a natural runner. I didn't run in high school. My run isn't natural or graceful. Also, I've not always been injury free. I've had minor knee surgery. If I were an ideal runner, I'd be a few pounds lighter. I hate getting up early to beat the heat and do long runs when it gets hot. But that's okay. I'll get this done anyway.
I'm also thinking that I should set a goal of writing a blog entry each day this summer. It doesn't have to be a long blog entry; a short one is fine. However, I like writing, so making time to do it is important, especially since I do have a little more time in the summer. So running and writing. Here I come.
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