St. George Marathon

We had a regional/stake conference the past couple days. There were some good messages, and Sister Parkin spoke yesterday morning. I'm sure she was talking about something else entirely, but what I got out of her message was that I should put in motion steps toward actually running a marathon. Let's run the St. George Marathon. I seriously have no idea what she talked about now that I'm trying to recall her message. I'm sure I wrote down more than just that, but that is what I'm taking away from her talk.

I've been toying with this idea in my head for some time now. I don't think I've expressed these thoughts aloud to anyone besides Greg, though. Running a marathon seems to be one of those things that is all about mind over body and is one of the ultimate tests of endurance, mental and physical. I think I've become more motivated in the last couple months just because I keep hearing about all of these people who have run marathons and so many times I find myself thinking, how is it that some middle aged mom is running marathons and I haven't even seriously considered it yet? Some lady in my office apparently runs marathons every month. Even my boss who is almost 40 ran a marathon a few years ago. She was inspired by some old nun who had run one in Chicago.

I keep hearing about all these people who have done it and I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to do the same. I'm 27 years old, consider myself to be in pretty good shape, and with as much determination as anybody else, so why not? If I were a professional athlete then I would be in the prime of my career. This is why I think you should run with me and why I feel like it's a good choice:

• The age thing - you guys are all about the same age as me. Now is as good a time as any.
• The scenery is supposed to be beautiful.
• This particular marathon is apparently one of the fastest to run in the country.
• It is set for Saturday, October 4th. So it's not a Sunday (and now I'm remembering what her talk was about) and if we do some reading on marathon training and get the gear (shoes...I guess you don't really need anything else) over the next couple weeks, starting in February we'll have 8 months to train for it. That should be enough time to do it.
• Winter is already starting to taper off here in Southern California so running weather should be pretty decent.
• The most intense part of training will be during the summer, so if you're in school then that should make it more convenient. One training program I've been looking at peaks about 3 weeks before the race so if you (or maybe even me depending on what happens with my applications) are starting up again in the Fall, then it will only conflict for the first couple weeks of the new school year.
• And if one of your resolutions is to be healthier and get into better shape, this is probably one of the most hard core ways to do it. You'll be exercising a ton and you'll necessarily have to be eating better just so that your body can keep up.

I think I make a pretty strong case. Greg is going to be running in the Catalina marathon in March. He's just starting to train now. His wife thinks he's crazy, but I really think this is just a mind over body kind of thing. I mentioned this before, but another friend of ours is going to medical school at UNLV and he found out that his program had him registered to run in the Las Vegas marathon a week before it was to occur. So without any training and basically just rolling out of bed and getting up and running 26.2 miles, he did it. And he followed that same plan two years in a row. If people can run these things with no training whatsoever, who are well past their physical peaks, then why can't I? Or we?

Even my branch president ran one. He's the guy who is inspiring Greg to run in the Catalina marathon in a couple of months. And that guy has 4 kids, is a branch president, and is a marriage and family therapist so don't try and say that you're too busy to do it yourself. I've been putting together resolutions and goals for the next year, before I'm 30, and lifelong goals and this particular one falls into all three categories. I think the first place to start with this and actually see it through is doing things that will commit you to the goal, e.g. say yes to it, write it down, buy shoes, register early, and actually start training. Let's do it.