The fall marathon season is upon us. I really love this time of year. I look forward to signing up for races, getting the confirmation email and planning a training schedule. I love studying my calendar - seeing the workouts planned and executing them. Perhaps its a feeling of satisfaction and completion that I'm looking for or the shocked look I get from non-runners.
I'm not doing anything extreme or extraordinary. In fact, plenty of runners run more than I do. Even the Biggest Loser contestants are running marathons! I just really enjoy doing it. And if there's anything a runner enjoys more than running, it's talking about it!
I remember a time when I didn't enjoy running. It was used as a punishment in other sports or whenever I gained weight during college and it just seemed too hard - that really was a punishment. But, with most things if you look for the positive and change your attitude, your heart and body will follow.
I started training for my first marathon in 2002. I had been married for almost 3 years and my husband had a lot of hobbies. Since we didn't have kids at the time, he was free to go and do all of his fun activities. I accompanied him on several occasions, but I didn't really have anything to call my own. I wanted a hobby! I had been thinking about starting to run for at least a year soon after 9/11. It has been well documented that after traumatic events such as wars, The Great Depression and 9/11 more people start pounding the pavement. I would consider myself one of those that was affected by this running boom. Running is stress-relieving and when faced with your own mortality there's nothing better to do than get in shape.
"To Run A Marathon" was also a goal that I wrote down in high school. Now at the time, I thought those goal-setting activities were pretty lame. I was 15 or 16 years old and I was expected to come up with some life-long goal? Give me a break. (I'm even rolling my eyes as I type.) So I thought as big as I could a wrote "to run a marathon". I probably didn't even know how far that was it just seemed unattainable at the time. I do remember I also wrote "to write a book." Does this count? I should have said blog and I would have been a visionary. I do believe in the goal-setting exercises now. Writing it down is the first step to making it happen.
In 2002, I joined a running group. Best advice ever - join a group! I have a place to meet people with the same interests and there is safety in numbers. By some magical force, the runs with the group seem easier and that's good because they're longer. Effort is distributed among everyone, so the work-load is shared.
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