Week 1 is in the books!

Like I said before, my sister in law offered me her bib for the Boston marathon and my husband guilted me into accepting it. Bottom line, my sister in law, is a stud and she didn't give up the bib lightly or without good reason. In fact, she probably has the best reason for doing so as she recently gave birth to one of the cutest babies in the world. I know I'm biased, but she literally popped out a Gerber baby...anyone who has seen her daughter will back me up on this. Suffice it say, she and her husband, were pretty busy raising the Gerber and the hours of running just weren't feasible. I didn't have such a watertight excuse. In fact, I didn't have much going on at all and there was that little part of me that had always wondered if I could do a marathon. That little spark of interest in conjunction with my husband's prodding (and the fact that he went ahead and told her I would do it while I was still waffling in the other room) sealed the deal. 

Too late for Week 1, I jumped into Week 2. I'm doing the mid-week workouts
from the faster plan and following the prescribed long runs of the slower plan...though that worked for this week, I'm predicting I may rethink this.

That was two Saturdays ago and I spent the day scouring the internet and local book stores for running plans that didn't immediately terrify me. I found one that was less horrifying than others and with dismay, realized that it called for a long run on Sunday. Apparently, I wasn't ready to actually start running, so I decided to skip my first long run and peruse more plans. Thinking about running doesn't qualify as actual training? Damn. I took the Monday rest day because come on, that's what was prescribed! I couldn't reason my way out of Tuesday though and dragged my husband on the 1 mile slow, 2 miles fast, 1 mile slow run with me. I just kept thinking "dear God, how am I going to run 26 frickin miles?" Is this same thought going to plague me for another 13 weeks? I fear that it might. The rest of the midweek workouts weren't terrible, though I did spend most of them obsessing about the big 26. When my long run rolled around, my legs were really pissed at me about the consecutive running days and decided to be real A-Hs on the long run. I slogged through two long loops at Queeny Park (we're now in Saint Louis visiting our families) and only completed the second half of the run because there was a girl with a dog ahead of me running a little faster than my ambling waddle who made me angry enough to continue through the discomfort. To the blonde girl who unknowingly kept me going, thank you. To her dog who took a surprising number of dumps along the run (allowing me to catch up to them again), thank you even more.

I've started reading the book I dutifully checked out at the library, "Runner's world complete book of running : everything you need to know to run for fun, fitness, and competition." Amby Burfoot, who won the 1968 Boston Marathon and the long-time editor of Runner's World magazine, tries to keep the tone positive and encouraging, but I found that any mention of specifics - times, distances, splits, numbers of any kind really - set me on edge and made backing out sound amazing. Definitely not what the book was meant to inspire. I finally got to a section about the mental side of running that delved into the crucial role a runner's state of mind plays in their development. This helped some and thinking about how the girl and her dog forced me to keep going, perhaps I'll rely on my extreme competitiveness and inner taunting to get me through this thing. Though most of the runners will probably cross the Boston finish line before me, I'll beat one or two dammit...and undoubtedly be extremely proud of it. Ah, isn't Graham a lucky man to be paired with someone so mature? Don't answer that.