Mar
4
During the last couple miles of the race on Sunday I had two thoughts foremost in my mind: one, that it would all be over soon and I just had to hang in there for, like, twenty more minutes; and two, that I was never ever EVER going to try and do a full marathon because there is pushing yourself and then there is plain old masochism and holy fuck I think I know which side of street 26.2 miles lives on.
I said as much to the friendly Minneapolis couple I was seated next to on my flight home. They told me I should come do the Twin Cities race in October because the leaves are so pretty, and I said I’d love to, but only if there was a half. “I mean, twenty-six miles,” I said, and twirled my finger next to my temple. They agreed, and we had a hearty chuckle over the batfuck insanity of running for five straight hours. Who DOES that?
. . . you can probably guess where this is going, right?
Yeah.
I really don’t know either, but I’ve got eight weeks to figure it out.
Comments
-
My product review site:
[
I think reading your post last night is the reason I had a dream that I’d entered a race that was 21 miles long. HA! ME! Who can only run for five minutes on the treadmill and only on a good day! Also, this race was half running and then half cycling. Like a biathlon but not. Also it included a stop at a cafe for lunch. I think we should actually create this race for real and make a million. You in?
I’m not sure what to say other than ask WHY?
Mazel tov! I am so proud of you and so inspired by you. You will do great and I can’t wait to hear all about it and see a picture of your face at the finish line.
Welp. I’ll say good luck! Love your passion, determination, and shooting for the stars.
Maybe someday I’ll share my ‘marathon’ (as in one and only) experience with you :) I will say I’m glad I did it. There just won’t be another one.
Ha!!
It sure is addictive (so I’ve heard…I’m training for my first marathon right now).
GOOD LUCK!
Excellent! Way to carpe the diem, Linda.
Girl, you are hard core. HAVE A BLAST.
I think you will kick that marathon’s ass.
Good luck!
You’re awesome! Way to grab life by the balls…or something.
Jillian: uh, no thanks. But I appreciate the oh-so-timely and generous offer. : )
I can’t help but notice there is a half marathon option… but you decided to go for the full. Way to push yourself!
You are part of my motivation for training for my first 5k. Cute, right? But you gotta start somewhere.
Holy crap! You just keep going for it don’t you? I think that’s awesome!
The year that my dad was going to turn 50, he decided to sign up, train and run the Chicago marathon. I’m not sure he loved it with a capital “L,” but it seems that his sense of accomplishment and endurance was worth the running for 6 hours.
No.Fucking.Way
Somehow I saw this coming. You will kick marathon butt, no worries.
The only marathon I’ll be partaking in is of the TV variety. Maybe BSG or Stargate.
Do they have lying like a lump in front of a computer screen marathons?
HAHA! Awesome! Marathons are like tattoos, apparently: you can’t stop at just one.
Even though I think you are a bit suicidal, at least you are attempting this feat while you are still in full training mode etc. Good luck!
You go girl!
Congratulations, Linda. You amaze me. Once you’ve run a marathon, you know, I am pretty sure there is some sort of induction ceremony into the ranks of the Indisputably Hardcore. I think you get a sash (OF BULLETS).
Because of you and one other friend, I have drastically adjusted my beliefs about my own capabilities. I doubt I have thanked you enough for that.
Wait a minute. Since the only thing stopping you from coming for the Twin Cities race (which goes right through my neighborhood, by the way) was the LENGTH, I assume this means I can expect you for dinner in October? Right? RIGHT??
The Twin City Marathon runs right by my house. It is a beautiful route and if you come, I’ll be in the crowd cheering you on (while relaxing on a beach chair). :)
Dude. Eight weeks? OMG. My body is miserable doing the half marathon training I am doing right now. I am planning to wait at least four-five months before attempting the full marathon thang. You must be made of STEEL, lady! Seriously. That kicks ass.
Congrats! You’ll do great!
October is gorgeous here! (Assuming we don’t get a blizzard…frankly anything is possibly here as far as the weather goes!)
Ha! You are awesome. I don’t where you’re going to find time to train for a marathon, but I’m sure you’ll manage. Good luck!
Well, OBviously you’re going to do a marathon next. Hell, you’re already halfway there, so the other 13.1 is just more of the same.
You’re going to love/hate it — it’s the best/worst thing I think a person can do, but in a really, really good, mind-blowingly satisfying way.
Jeebus, you’re a rockstar!
Naw, it won’t be 5 hours of running. You’ll do it in 4, no problem. :)
p.s. This new goal doesn’t surprise me in the least.
I trained for a marathon once. The arthritis in my hips eventually forced me to quit. But for me, the big motivation was to see old friends from law school, one of whom was living in San Diego and one in D.C. I viewed it as a mini-law school reuinion and was very, very happy to train for it with tht goal in mind, and was very sad when it didn’t come to pass.
WOW well I will say that I am very proud of you. I can not run to save my life but I can skate all day long. The local skating/Walking/Biking trail near me had a run/walk/skate 5k one year and I loved it. But you could not pay me enough money to train for a marathon.
I do wish you luck and hope that you accomplish this. Come by and check out our blog sometetime. We think It is fun.
Karen
Awesome! After watching the finishers of the MGM last weekend, though, I was damn glad I’d only done the half. And I’ve done two full marathons.
Good luck!
Yo go girl!! You can do anything :)
Hey Linda,
You totally can do it but as someone who has done both a full and a half marathon, the training is somewhat different. I know you are already registered and you seem fit enough to do it, don’t overtrain or your running days will be short-lived. My recommendation is to aim for another half this spring and then do a full in the fall. That way you will have a better base of fitness going into the high mileage training and less chance of injury from overuse. Just my 2 cents.
Shut the F up. Congrats!
You are so awesome.
That is so cool! You will do a great job, and the best thing is that you have already been training, so you can just keep on going. :-) In 8 weeks, you will definitely be able to add 7 more miles to your long run. I have run 2 marathons (NYC and Grandma’s), and both times my longest training run was 20 miles. They say that you can make the last 6.2 on adrenaline, and they are right. Even though, for a back-of-the-pack runner like me, that means another HOUR of running! It is such an awesome accomplishment. I am so excited for you!!
Similar to other commenters, you have really inspired me. In fact, I am going to train for the KC 1/2 marathon this fall.
That’s f-ing amazing!
Amazing! Simply Amazing! You will do great! Congratulations on signing yourself up for another great adventure.
It makes a good amount of sense to sign up for a full at this point. I did the same a handful of years ago–finished my first half in January and thought, well, I’m halfway there already. And I signed up for a full in early June and just kept training.
Good for you.
WOW. You are possibly completely insane, but also hella inspiring.
GO YOU!
(And if you make it and want more, I concur that Minneapolis is BEAUTIFUL in October for that run – I lived there for 17 years.)
From one who has been there: take care of your knees and the rest will take care of itself. You already have the cardio capacity and strength, not to mention the mental fortitude/stubbornness–you’ll do great.
I will say that I am not terribly surprised but, um, yeah…batshit crazy. You will do great, I am sure, but, I still think it’s almost as insane a climbing Mt. Everest (just watched “Into Thin Air” and anyone who does that is nuts…).
Good luck. I will cheer you on (sitting on the couch with a huge latte…).
This post made me think of this book and you:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0307269191
Haruki Murakami is one of my all time favorite authors and even though I’m not a runner by any means, I did read ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ and thoroughly enjoyed it! Maybe it’ll feed you in some way for your next marathon?
Gah! You’re crazy. And awesome. Crazy awesome.
OK, now I’m doing it. Checking out races near me. You have inspired me. I’m starting small though. 5K. No harm in that, right? We’ll see where it goes from there. Sky’s the limit. Thanks for the inspiration. Seriously. :-)
Woo-hoo – warned you that would happen.
Great news – you go girl! Just be careful with the training – 8 weeks to prep is short.
It’s one thing you’ll never regret – I’m training for my second and the nike frees help a lot
I’m so not surprised to hear that.
If you do the Minneapolis one, I’ll totally come and cheer you on.
Girl, you are a fucking rock star. Have you signed up anyone to do it with you?
You can do it! My husband – SO not a runner – did a half back in Oct. and is now training for the Chicago marathon. You know you’ve got 26 in you. :)
Well woman….you certainly do know how to dive right in. Full blown IronWoman Triathalon next on the list??
Awesome. You can totally do this. I’m not surprised at all. I went from not being able to run 2 miles to finishing a marathon 6 months later (Chicago, 1999… when I was at approx mile 14, we heard from the crowd that the winner finished). It IS the most awesome best/worst thing. It is also possible to only do one. :)