My friends Adam and Monica (**names may or may not have been changed to protect the not so innocent**) recently offered me a charity bib for THE Boston Marathon. Ho. Lee. Shit. Boston has been on my bucket list since I was probably 16 years old. I said yes, of course, and even hubby is on board (we'll see how he feels later when I have to skip out for 3 hours on a Sunday). It wasn't until later that I remembered I was never going to do another marathon ever. Shit. I have completed 2...I won't say I "ran" 2, because that would be seriously overstating my case. But I finished them, and I didn't die. Mission accomplished.
I didn't train for my previous marathons, really. My longest run for my first was 12 miles. And I wondered why I didn't walk or shit right for 2 days? For my second one, Monica thought she'd be cute and bust my ass. I raced a half, jogged a 15, and walk/jogged an 18. And peeled 27 minutes off my time...there are 80 year olds who marathon faster than me, so that's really not much of an accomplishment. But I digress...
So I've never run Boston. Don't even think I could ever come close to qualifying. So I'm a poser. But I'm going to run Boston. I've already booked my flight. It. Is. On. Then my dear friends said that I have to train. Like, for real train. Shit. Ok fine. Train for a 3:59:59, they said. I promptly reminded my friends that they are, in fact, crack smokers. But I accepted the challenge. I have a 5-day a week plan that I think I can (mostly) stick to. And another friend who has agreed to guilt me into doing my long weekend runs. I hate her...but I love her.
After the initial "you're going to run 3:59:59", Adam talked to his coach about it. Apparently, I'm supposed to run my easy days at 10 minute pace. What. The. Fuck. Seriously? I'm comfortable at 8:45!! But fine. Whatever. I'll be Adam's bitch. I ran 4 miles at 10 minute pace. It fucking sucks. I feel like even more of a poser, if that's possible.
So why am I blogging this? I had the bright idea during my painfully slow run today, that I would document my little journey. Maybe I'll look back on it in 30 years. Maybe my kids will appreciate it someday. Maybe I can show them and myself what is possible.
Sparty on™
here's the thing: there's a certain amount of suck that goes into marathoning. you can do it all at once on race day, or you can parcel it out into multiple, REGULAR, training runs... then there's less suck to deal with on race day.
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Good Luck and I am sure you will do great!
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