"Well, here goes my journey. Three days ago on May 4, 2008 I completed the Flying Pig Half-Marathon in Cincinnati, OH. Running has never been my forte by any means. I dabbled in a little cross country in junior high, but was extremely miserable while doing it. Never in a million years did I ever think I would come to enjoy running later down the road.Fast foward to last summer. I decided to give running another shot. I probably couldn't have run a mile if you asked me to, but found the "Couch to 5K" program on coolrunning.com and decided to give it a try. I bought the fancy new running shoes and started slowly and made progress. Then I got the brilliant idea in my head to train for a triathlon. I was a swimmer growing up, and I owned a decent bicycle...why not do a triathlon??? So a triathlon I did. I completed 3 sprint-distance triathlonts last summer and really enjoyed the experience. Granted, I couldn't run the entire 5K that came at the end of those triathlons, but that didn't matter at the time.Fall rolled around and work started up (I work in schools so I get my summers off....lucky me!). With work came the stress. I started to turn to running as a way to clear my head at the end of the day and really came to appreciate that time I had, even if it was only about 30 minutes or so. As the temps outside started to drop, I found running to be much easier on my body. Running in the heat and me don't get along. 3 miles started to become a piece of cake. Then another crazy idea popped into my head....why not train for a half-marathon? I'd never run over 3 miles before...why not run 13.1? I did some research online, looked at some training plans, and decided to go for it. 4 months of training, days of cold weather runs, aches and pains, and 2 illnesses later I completed my first half-marathon in 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 54 seconds. I had been training at about an 11 minute/mile pace due to taking stretching breaks and being non-motivated to run any faster, but I surprised myself during the half-marathon and consistently ran at about a 10 minute mile pace. My friends who had come to watch me actually missed my finish because I finished about 25 minutes faster than I thought I would! One of my friends asked me right after the race if I would consider the full marathon. I immediately said "no way....I probably won't even run the half again!" I was so exhausted and emotionally drained at that point that I didn't want to have anything to do with long-distance running ever again! The day rolled on and the runner's high kicked in to high gear because my frame of mind started to change and all of the sudden I was thinking about what it would be like to train for the marathon and if I could do it. My boyfriend told me to hold that thought in the back of my head because maybe I was drugged up on this runner's high and the thought might pass. Here I sit over 3 days later and I can't get my mind off of it. I'm going to do it. I am going to complete the 2009 Flying Pig Marathon! Obviously I have plenty of time to train. I actually have a season of triathlons coming up (I bet I'll be able to run the whole 5K now!), but then I can focus my sights on 26.2 miles. I will train much differently this time around. There's not much room for slacking off while training for a marathon. I think I'll go with a training group this time as well instead of relying on my boyfriend following me around on rollerblades to get me through the long runs. But I'm going to do it.So this is my journey into the crazy world of marathon-running. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. I may be crazy. I don't even like running that much! But I can't shake this wonderful feeling I have after completing the half-marathon...and I can only imagine it will be 2x as wonderful after completing the marathon! We'll see how it goes.May 3, 2009www.flyingpigmarathon.com "
This was something I wrote back on May 7, 2008 just after I completed the Flying Pig Half Marathon. Lucky for me (or maybe not so lucky...time will only tell), I still have the itch to run a full marathon. I didn't run much over the summer....as I stated in that entry above, running in the heat and me don't get along. But now the temps are dropping and I loooove running in the cool fall air. Plus, on top of that, I now have a dog who desperately needs some way to get out his large amounts of energy. So Keifer and I have been running pretty consistently, slowly building him up to longer distances and consistent running. He still does a lot of stopping, leaf eating, pouncing on the ground, etc., but we have worked our way up to a total distance of 3.5 miles. I'm hoping he starts getting the hang of continuous running eventually because it makes a run much more difficult when you have a dog pulling you this way and that.
Friday begins what I am going to call the "running season". The Run Like Hell is this Friday night. It's just a 5K, but it's what started the running bug in me last year. I'm hoping to also do the Thanksgiving Day Run which is a 10K. I have plenty of time to train and I already have a good base. Then, after that, I can set my sights on the marathon!
For all of you reading, welcome to my journey. It will be an interesting one, that's for sure. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the journey goes smoothly and that I will cross that finish line come May 3! There's a lot of time between then and now, and a lot of things can happen.
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