Marathon Training 11/10/08

I don’t know who all knows this, but I have lost my mind, and in the process decided to train for a half marathon, Route 66 11/16/08 (13.1 miles), and a full marathon San Francisco Marathon (26.2 miles) 7/26/09. And, in the process of deciding to do these crazy events, I have enlisted Lindsay (her half marathon is the P.F. Chang’s Rock and Roll in Jan. 2009) to do the same training! So now I am responsible for mine and my cousin’s sanity for the next few months! So I thought I would give everyone an update, and just a few anecdotes along the way.
So you may ask, when, and where does this event take place where I will pay someone for the privilege to run 26.2 miles? Well, since Allison has moved to Fairfield, CA, we have decided to run the San Francisco Marathon July 26, 2009.
Why are you running-are you crazy? Yes, I think I might be crazy, see the first paragraph. But, I have discovered that you can sign up to raise funds for the California Breast Cancer Awareness Fund. And, decided that it would feel really good to be running for such a good cause (because trust me it is going to take something more than love for running to get me that far)! But, more details to follow on that.
So here are some things I have learned along the way….
1) Running will improve your math skills. Yes, you may still spend a lot of time asking your husband if you ran this far in this amount of time, what was your average time per mile, but you will learn that 5 K=3.1 miles. You will embrace K’s, because even though you have no idea what they are or how far they are, you know that you see them more often than the mile signs! Plus, you will figure out really fast how to calculate distance on Riverside, or else you could go out for a 7 mile run and end up running an extra mile, because you started at 56th St., and couldn’t quite grasp the concept of trying to figure out the half mile thing.
2) Night running is fun! A group of us ran the Full Moon 5K (even my Uncle Butch, who kicked my butt) in May of this year. They had free beer afterwards, which ranks up there with me on being even better than getting a free t-shirt!
3) You may develop unusual tastes in music. ‘Drop it on Me’ by Ricky Martin seems to be my favorite motivation song right now. Is this embarrassing to admit? Yes, very embarrassing, but am I going to remove it from my ipod-heck no, how do you think I am going to make it to that finish line?
4) You will start to be upset on your training runs, when you realize that there isn’t a finish line, a big clock, and fans cheering you on (or free beer for that matter)!
5) You will embrace you inner spandex loving self. You will start to believe you look really good in spandex! You will receive honks while you are running, on mile two you will think “Jerk.” On mile 9, you will think “that’s right I look good.” Now I do not advocate wearing spandex all the time or anything, but it works for running.
6) You may start to run at LaFortune Park, because you rationalize that when you need drugs and IV fluids it is really good to be that close to a hospital!
7) Oh, and last but not least, you can fall off a treadmill. I should know, I almost bit the dust the other night. Bad news, luckily only ended up in a scraped elbow.
So anyone that has an aspirations of running a marathon, this is the time to start training so that you can meet me and Lindsay in San Francisco next July and have the once in a lifetime experience of running across the San Francisco Bridge!