It is marathon eve!! Tomorrow morning I will be running 26.2 miles through the streets of Chicago and I'm feeling prepared, nervous, excited, and a bit anxious. I've heard so many great things about this course and about this race and I am so excited for a big race like this. The energy is unlike anything else.
Throughout the course of training, I've been making a few little notes to myself about what marathon training is and what it means to me. I decided to reread them tonight and share them all with you here. It's a little bit of craziness. A little bit of why I do this. And a little bit of what makes it so addicting.
Thanks everyone for your support. And in case you were curious, training for a marathon, to me, is...
Throughout the course of training, I've been making a few little notes to myself about what marathon training is and what it means to me. I decided to reread them tonight and share them all with you here. It's a little bit of craziness. A little bit of why I do this. And a little bit of what makes it so addicting.
Thanks everyone for your support. And in case you were curious, training for a marathon, to me, is...
- Getting up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings to get a run in before the heat rolls in. Essentially going weeks of waking up with an alarm clock, forgetting what it is like to wake up on your own accord.
- Convincing the maintenance people at the hotel gym to let you run even when the gym is supposed to be closed, the air conditioning has been shut off, and they are standing at the back of the treadmill looking at you wondering what the heck you are doing.
- Convincing the maintenance people at the hotel gym to let you run even when the gym is supposed to be closed, the air conditioning has been shut off, and they are standing at the back of the treadmill looking at you wondering what the heck you are doing.
- Running anyways even when it is in the high 90s and everything in your being is saying don't run.
- Keeping a "stick" at your desk and rolling out your calves during conference calls.
- Spending way too much time researching routes to run, even when it is the same neighborhood you run in multiple times each week. There has got to be some hidden ways to make the routes more unique or interesting.
- Calling and exploring whether or not the hotels you are at have sidewalks outside them because your first thought is always "Can I run there?"
- Keeping a towel in your car for your sweaty mess of a self, but also pretty much just accepting that your car is going to need a deep cleaning at the end of the summer, humidity and training cycle.
- Spending way too much time researching routes to run, even when it is the same neighborhood you run in multiple times each week. There has got to be some hidden ways to make the routes more unique or interesting.
- Calling and exploring whether or not the hotels you are at have sidewalks outside them because your first thought is always "Can I run there?"
- Keeping a towel in your car for your sweaty mess of a self, but also pretty much just accepting that your car is going to need a deep cleaning at the end of the summer, humidity and training cycle.
- Achieving something that you never thought imaginable for yourself.
- Feeling badass. Feeling strong. Powerful. Unstoppable.
- Having a water bottle by your sides at all times. ALL times. Especially the week before your race.
- Keeping a pair of sneakers and full variety of running clothes in your trunk at all times, just in case.
- Going to bed earlier than you want to.
- Losing toenails. Nuff said.
- Calluses, corns and blisters on feet that even the best of pedicures can't make cute.
- Becoming so in tune with your body that you know when a knee ache is funny or a different muscle is sorer than it used to be.
- Paying more attention to what you are eating because your body instinctively is craving power foods and you want to fuel your next run.
- Becoming best friends with your compression socks.
- Endorphins.
- Turning into a machine where you run and your mind turns blank and you instinctively step to avoid a pothole in the rode, move over for other walkers, dart across walking signs on the roads, and becoming a powerful, rhythmic machine.
- Not wearing heels on account on not wanting to trip or just because your legs are freaking tired.
- Booking flights around long runs.
- One of the most amazing experiences that you'll ever have. It will change you. It will make you better. It will make you feel strong and dig deeper into yourself than you've had to before. It will make you overcome weather, aches, fears, self doubt, and make you a champion, no matter what time you finish the race.
- The hard part. The race is the reward.
Here goes nothing! I'll report back from the finish line!
- Calluses, corns and blisters on feet that even the best of pedicures can't make cute.
- Becoming so in tune with your body that you know when a knee ache is funny or a different muscle is sorer than it used to be.
- Paying more attention to what you are eating because your body instinctively is craving power foods and you want to fuel your next run.
- Becoming best friends with your compression socks.
- Endorphins.
- Turning into a machine where you run and your mind turns blank and you instinctively step to avoid a pothole in the rode, move over for other walkers, dart across walking signs on the roads, and becoming a powerful, rhythmic machine.
- Not wearing heels on account on not wanting to trip or just because your legs are freaking tired.
- Booking flights around long runs.
- One of the most amazing experiences that you'll ever have. It will change you. It will make you better. It will make you feel strong and dig deeper into yourself than you've had to before. It will make you overcome weather, aches, fears, self doubt, and make you a champion, no matter what time you finish the race.
- The hard part. The race is the reward.
Here goes nothing! I'll report back from the finish line!
No comments:
Post a Comment