Marathon Madness

Did you miss me? No need to answer, I already know.

I don’t have much of a reason or excuse as to why I haven’t been around much, other than life had me re-prioritize things for a bit (like hanging out with a lemur) and then I just got kind of lazy and thought…

“I’ll just post that tomorrow”

And then when tomorrow came, it was today and I had other things to do so I put it off until another tomorrow and now it’s a month later and I’ve somehow convinced myself to register for a marathon.

I wasn’t sure how to segue from not being around at all to being all like, “hey kids, I want to run 26.2 miles for fun! Who wants to join me?!” But I got to say -

Nailed it.

I’ve been somewhat willy-nilly with my training over the past couple of months – I’ll do great one week and then the next I’m lucky to get my running shoes out once. I just didn’t have anything to focus my efforts on and it all just went to the wayside. I had already planned on running a marathon (initially I thought it’d be the OKC Marathon) and with the registration for that not starting until September 1st – I’ve just been wandering aimlessly from one treadmill to the next.

Then, I got an email that mentioned The Army Marathon. It sparked a memory in me from all the way back to this past January at the Miracle Match 5k expo. I was checking out all the booths while I picked up my bib and happened to stop at The Army Marathon, it was their inaugural year this year, and they tried to convince me to sign up. Even though I had two half-marathons under my belt at that point I was not mentally ready to commit to the fact that I could run 26 freaking miles.

I started reading about dates/times and thinking how that would work with my current race schedule as far as training and y’all, I had no excuse. I couldn’t put it on the back burner any longer (much like writing for this janky ol’ blog y’all love so dearly) and I just said, “Fuck it” as I hit the register button.

And just like that, there was no turning back.

I still would really like to run Oklahoma but ultimately chose to go with this since it’s much closer to home for me (Killeen-Temple area). I traveled for my first half, and while it was an amazing experience, it also added a lot of extra stress I probably could have avoided.

Running 26.2 miles is no freaking joke and I want to be as prepared as possible come race day so cutting out travel seemed fairly logical. Also, this way I can force my family/friends to come & cheer me on along the way.

I’ve created a marathon schedule that I believe will work for me (please feel free to give me any and all your insights!) with my main focus simply being on finishing. My first official week was, uh this one. And I can already feel my focus on workouts coming back, it’s been a good week.

I kept stairs as a workout because I feel like that really helped prepare me other races – it’s hard work guys. Seriously, up and down stairs for 45+ minutes and you’re sweating like raccoon in a hat-making contest. Cross training with Moj is basically whatever strength workout Moj has cooked up for us to do. Today involved a lot of planks and incline push-ups. I seriously have no idea how I even put my shirt on after it.

I’m nervous but more than that, I’m really excited to push myself and see what I’m capable of. I can remember thinking there’s no way I’ll ever be able to run 3 miles and now, here I am ready to tackle 26. It’s a helluva feeling and I’m glad I get to share it with you guys.

So, you tell me – what’s something on your schedule you’re pumped about? I’ve missed y’all!