26.2 Miles

This is the week when I officially start my marathon training for the October 12th Chicago Marathon. To be honest, I've been looking around a lot in my mind for reasons that I can back out of it. It could be a money thing, too busy with school, or maybe I just plain can't do it. I've got my calendar printed up with the mileage that I have to cover each week and I'm really intimidated by it. I mean really. The first month doesn't seem that bad, averaging about 15-17 miles a week, running 4 times during the week. What really scares me is August and September when I'm supposed to run a total of 273 miles during those two months. The average mileage per week at that point will be about 30 miles.

One of my biggest concerns about running the marathon is wondering whether or not I can actually do it. The last several weeks I've been doing about 12-14 a week and at first it was pretty bad. Some days running the same route, with about the same amount of rest can be so completely different from one week to the next. Last week I thought I was going to fall apart on the first day of running, and then after that it wasn't so bad. Except for that part on Saturday when I decided to run in the late afternoon after having eaten only a couple of tacos from Jack in the Box. I guess it just surprises me how different the same path, running the same distance can be so different from one day to the next. My lower back is always the most sore when I start out, but then by the end I feel like I'm absorbing my entire weight's shock in my shins. I probably just need to break down and buy some new running shoes. I'm pretty sure these ones are about 6 months old. I miss the days of just going to the gym and lifting some weights for about 45 minutes and not feeling that tired. Running takes it out of me, but probably because I'm still trying to maintain a weightlifting component to my exercise regimen. I'm sure that will go away.

So why do I want to run a marathon? I want to do it because it feels really good to do hard things. I get a real lift from setting a goal and then seeing it fulfilled. I know that I'm never going to run 100m under 10 seconds, play a professional sport, or do accomplish a number of other athletic feats, but it seems like running 26.2 miles is a real possibility. I think that's something that's within everyone's capacity because I think it's mostly just a mental battle. I want to do it because I feel like if some old lady can run that far, then why can't I? I'm a guy who fancies himself to be pretty athletic and if I were a professional athlete, I would be in the prime of my career. Now is the time. But I think that's the main reason - I want to know that I can do hard things. I want to do things and not just talk about them. I want to know that even though sometimes some thing may make me question whether or not I can succeed, that I'll do everything I can to get there. And this challenge, quite literally, is going to test my ability to reach that end destination.

Only now it's pretty intimidating. I'm doing this all by myself, going to a city that I've never been to before. And I'm moving up to Utah in the middle of the most intense part of the training. Luckily, I've realized that if I'm going to follow through with it that I've got to commit myself in as many ways as possible. I've already paid for registration. I've announced it to various friends and acquiantances, and now it's appearing more on the blog. So...I'm going to try and keep you all abreast of how the training is going, and if you could do me a favor and ask me about it from time to time, that would help also. Because heaven knows that after running tonight, I barely felt like I could run a couple of miles, let alone 26.2.