Marathons for Dummies: Episode One

Once upon a time, when I was a scrawny little freshman, I made the worst decision of my entire life. I promised myself that senior year, I would run a marathon.

Fast forward two years: I can barely run two miles without barfing, or collapsing in a wheezing, red-faced heap. I’ve come to terms that I’m not an athletic person. But you see people who have no athletic ability whatsoever doing all this snazzy stuff, so why not?

My initial goal was to run the New York Marathon next year on Nov. 1, but that’s kind of far away both location and time-wise. I’ll probably do something early fall next year that’s close to home. The only thing standing in my way is two seasons of cross country–oh, and I’m really out of shape.

This blog is just going to include some of my grueling workouts, and maybe a meal or two if I ever learn to eat healthy. It’ll also feature any other marathon-related things I decide to include. I’m basically writing this to motivate myself. It’d be pretty embarrassing if I had to stop writing this blog because I quit training.

So far, things haven’t been peachy. I’m faring well at the bottom of the cross country C-team, a position I’ve grown to know and love through jogging on tempo days and getting screamed at to stop walking during the races.  Saturday, Aug. 23 was our annual long run. I ran two-and-a-half out of the five miles, managing to be the very last runner back to school. Slow and steady wins the race…..right?

I’ve also been dealing with an accessory navicular bone in my right foot. It’s basically where four bones were supposed to fuse together when I was younger, and only three did. The odd bone out continually rubs against a tendon in my foot, causing me a great deal of pain.

But it’s only month one. I have twelve more, and through a bunch of moaning, sweating, crying, and pasta, I’m gonna rock this race. Fact.

If there are any other dummies out there trying to run 26.2 miles who can’t even do a 5K without walking, this one’s for you.

 

Leave a Reply