For years I have been talking about "taking the plunge" and "challenging" myself to see if I could run a marathon, but something always came up.....well, it was usually because I was pregnant, but that is beside the point.
So.....I went online the other day and decided to pay my $88 to register, knowing that just by registering I would follow through with it and make myself start training for it. So now I guess you could say I am a new kind of machine-I will be a running machine for the next 6 months so that I can fully prepare myself to run 26.2 miles so that I can buy a sticker that says 26.2 and put it on the back of my car.
My trainer, who has run at least 3 marathons, assures me that I will do great and that I am fit enough to go the distance-literally, and that 6 months is way more training time than needed. She wrote me a running program that is only 18 weeks long, but VERY challenging and she said that it would more than prepare me. I believe her and trust what she tells me, but I still have my concerns......the main one being how does the whole bathroom thing work during the race?.....and what about after for that matter? I have heard some REALLY scary stories about friends who spent the first post-marathon hour in the port-o-potty having a marathon of a different sort that involves doing what my friends and I call multi-tasking (pooping out one end and puking out the other). Sorry for the visual, but this is a serious issue if I will be running for 4-5 straight hours.
Also, how does the whole eating thing work? How do you stop running and eat? Or more importantly how do you eat anything while running without getting a cramp or puking your brains out?
What about the whole mental anguish aspect of running a marathon? I have talked to several people that say it is mentally draining and that you can't mind fuck yourself or else you will psyche yourself out. I know that I overthink everything and mind fucking myself is definitely part of my daily routine (Oh, my kid watched too much TV today, I am a bad mother, the kids were misbehaving and driving me bonkers all day, I am a bad mommie etc.) but I figure that 6 months of preparation will be enough to get my brain in shape....right?
These little kinks will hopefully be ironed out in the next 6 months of my training as I prepare myself for my greatest challenge yet. I keep telling myself that if I could endure 20 hours of back labor with no epidural and an emergency C-section to bring my first child into the world, then I can run for 1/4 of that amount of time.
I will keep you posted on my progress. For right now, my goals are simple for my first marathon. They are as follows: 1) Don't poop myself 2) Finish the whole distance 3) Be mentally sound the whole time to help push myself across the finish line 4) Buy a cool sticker for my car........oh yeah, and DON"T GET PREGNANT until the marathon is complete.
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