At the beginning of this year (2011), I decided that I'd quit talking about running a marathon, I'd sign up and run one. I'd talked about it now for over a year and the way to be accountable is to sign up to do it and tell people what you're doing.
I had been telling my children that they could do anything they wanted to if they'd set a goal and work towards that goal, creating daily to do lists and making progress little by little every day. It's my sincere hope that when I cross that finish line October 9th, that lesson will be planted firmly within each of them.
The moment I made that decision I truly had no idea what I'd signed up to do or what I'd gotten myself into!
I decided to run for charity and after looking at the charities who had opening for The Chicago Marathon I chose Team Livestrong. I lost both my parents to cancer and I'm truly inspired by Lance Armstrong's story of survival and the mission of Team Livestong.
I admit I still have some weight to lose and I've begun serious training this month although the training schedule I downloaded starts in June.
It became obvious to me as I began to work on distance that my weigth was a factor in speed and in the joint pain I began to experience.
I also realized that I had a half marathon to run July 4th as part of my training and that I really needed to focus harder on longer distances since July 4th isn't that far away.
I'm a goal setter. So...in addition to my fitness goals and marathon goals I added a finish losing the weight NOW goal to help me remain injury free.
I have 3 main goals related to the Chicago Marathon on October 9th, 2011 and they are:
1. To finish with a respectable time for a first marathon
2. To run the whole thing, not walk
3. To remain injury free during training
I quickly realized that to remain injury free I had to control all the things I could control and my weight was the biggest.
I'm not for crash diets, our bodies need nutrients to function and thrive, particularly during the stess of training. So, clean eating is the path I'm choosing and limiting calories to shed the extra weight.
That said, I am for pushing hard, safely pushing limits and developing the mental strength and focus to go to places we never dreamed possible.
The human body is capable of far more than we can imagine but we have to come to a place where consistent training and focus can take us there.
When I run, the hardest part for me is the beginning, that first mile, sometimes two. I need to push my body to go and not stop until I get the endorphin rush, then I'm set....at that point I can keep going.
When I run I find a peace....it's a time I commune with God, where I find the peace only He brings. It's a time I think and even set new goals.
So...what have I learned with a little over 4 months to go before the marathon?
1. This is one of the hardest things I've ever done.
2. I need to remain focused on staying injury free and therefore really focus on getting my weight into the middle or lower range BMI for my height and weight which will greatly reduce the stess on my joints.
3. Getting my weight in check requires getting my diet in check every minute of every day. My training time and the time until the marathon are short and I cannot afford to mess up. Diet is the hardest part for me. I'm an emotional eater and that's not a good excuse.
4. Somewhere deep inside me, no matter what my finish time is, I'd like to qualify for Boston. That's going to be an interesting thing because to put it mildly, my mile times suck right now. I admit I'm not working on speed and am purposely running 12-13 min. miles so that I can run for a long time. I figure distance and then speed but do I have enough time to get to 8.8 minute mile time? I'm not sure but I am going to try, because failing is worse than quitting or not trying at all. And since I'm a realist, if I don't qualify but I run the whole thing I'll be okay with that.
5. Is this the beginning of a passion or a goal to check off a list? I'm not sure right now. To be honest, I have a different opinion on that topic every day depending on how my run went that day.
No doubt, no matter what happens, this journey will be life changing for me and when I cross the finish line, I'm sure tears will follow. Hopefully my family and friend will be there and for sure, we will all celebrate after it's over. While this is a mountain I must climb alone, nobody else can do it for me, I surely must share it with those closest to me!
I can now pinpoint the very spot where I decided to take my fitness to that next level, the elite level. It was May 29th, 2011. It was the day I knew I wouldn't let one more day go by that I didn't control what I ate so that all the hard work I was putting in was for nothing or at least would not keep me from doing this thing as best as I can.
Who am I competing with? Me. I must conquer myself to complete this marathon.
