It’s been said that the idea for running a marathon should not be something that one just jumps into on a whim. You should have been running for at least a year prior, you should have perhaps done a 5K, or a half marathon before attempting the full 26.2 miles, and you should be a little insane to begin with.
Ok fine, I made that last one up. But, I think it might be at least a little true. At least, I think that the reasons I decided to run a marathon might prove my insanity. I did choose to run on a whim. I have not ever run before. I really hope I don’t die doing this.
So, anyhow, I’m running a marathon. I’m running this marathon. How I decided to do this is a little odd, but there were 3 things that sparked the idea. The first is that I’ve had skymiles for ages and I have been talking now for a long, long time about using them to go to Hawaii, so that’s always been in the back of my mind. The second was reading that Pamie, of pamie.com, ran the marathon in Maui. I totally can’t lie in that when I read her 3 entries about the marathon I thought to myself, “man.. I could totally do that.” Not to say that she made it sound easy, but I thought here’s this woman who is only a few years older than I am and she’s running marathons and I get winded going up the stairs to my apartment. Plus, if I’m going to Hawaii, I’m wearing a bikini no matter what my shape, and let’s face it - at this present moment, me? In a bikini? That’s just cruel and unusual punishment to those around me.
But what really pushed me over the edge was that a few weeks after reading Pamie’s entry, and telling a few friends I was contemplating running a marathon, the Chicago Marathon came through town, and literally came within yards of my apartment. I was heading to a girlfriend’s house that day and made a quick stop to a Walgreen’s down the street and noticed there was a relief station set up just outside. As I made my way there I could hear people cheering, and saw people drifting through (these people were running faster than my pace, but they were still more towards the back of the pack). I stayed outside the store to watch them for a few minutes and, without even noticing, I had a huge smile across my face and tears running down my cheeks. I’m normally a pretty dramatic person to begin with, but this just warmed my heart so much to see all these people supporting the runners, even though so many hours had gone by and they had already declared a winner of the race.
Let’s face it, for alot of people, running 26.2 miles and surviving it is a win in and of itself.
So it was that moment I decided I was going to do this for real.
On the very last day of 2006, I registered for the Marathon so I could get in at a cheaper rate.
A couple weeks into 2007, I looked into my flight for Maui using my skymiles and found a round trip ticket from Chicago to Maui for $10! Let’s ignore that I have a few layovers coming back, but who cares! When will I ever get to fly anywhere, let alone Maui, for Ten Dollars ever again?
And finally at the end of January, my girlfriend Corri decided she would run the marathon with me, and her husband is coming along for the trip too, so all my hotel and car rental costs will be split. So far this is sounding like an ideal vacation, right?
I mean, aside from that whole running thing I also have to do in the middle of the trip.
Procrastination being my best friend, I finally sat down to do my schedule for what I need to accomplish in the way of running prior to the maraton and realized just last Friday that this week starts a 29-week countdown until the marathon. A normal marathon training program is 20 weeks, and the first part of training I wanted to work with, Couch-to-5k, is a 9 week program.
It’s time to get my ass in gear, which is why I started this blog.
I also want to add a disclaimer that I am certainly no doctor, or medical anything. My medical knowledge is limited to the terms I’ve heard Dr. McDreamy say on Grey’s Anatomy. Should I survive these 29 weeks, and then survive the 26.2 in Maui, I’ll have to say I’m an exception to all the rules you’ve heard before about people running marathons. This isn’t me telling you not to attempt one for yourself, but certainly check with your doctor beforehand (I was at least smart enough to do that, and thankfully she didn’t laugh me out of her ofice.)
Anyhow, I will post weekly what my running plans are, and I’m planning on posting an honest-to-God recount of what I ran, how I felt, and welcome any and all feedback, though I really hope it’s all of the positive variety.
Thanks for hanging out for the long run (pun intended)!
