Running Joke, Part 3

So I was comitted. Me. Somone who hadn't run since elementary school. Me. Somone who hates to run now. Me. I was going to run the 2006 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC.

Oi.

I started scouring the internet for information on how to train for a marathon (some of my favorite links are to the right). A friend recommended Jeff Galloway's Marathon You Can Do It! book.

Let's see, one marathon training book - $12. One pair of running shoes - $110. One gizmo that attaches to your shoe and tells you how far / how fast you have run - $100. Assorted running clothing - $85. Living up to your drunken promises - priceless.

That would be an interesting survey - we should have marathon runners check a box on their entry form: Are you running today because of a drunken promise? Pretty sure the numbers would surprise some people.

Galloway's book lays out a number of training programs based upon your level of fitness, experience, and your Marathon goal (do you just want to finish? or do you want to finish in a certain time?)

Everything I have read about marathoning (is that a word?) cautions beginners not to set a time goal for their first or even second marathon. Naturally, I ignored this advice. I wanted to at least keep up with my buddies on race day. A time of 3 hours 45 minutes ought to do it . . . .

All of Galloway's training plans are 26 weeks long. I had 10 months to race day and I was going to use all of them. I figured that if I wanted to run a 3:45, I was going to need the extra four months.

I looked up the appropriate 3:45 plan in the book and started training. Without boring you with the details, you basically have to run every other day - weekdays are shorter runs and weekends are the longer runs.

I had a lot of trouble at first getting those shorter weekday runs in. Work was crazy, I was at the office all kinds of hours. But I kept up doing the longer runs on the weekends.

"You are going to hurt yourself" one of my long-time runner-friends told me.

"I don't think so"

"Look, man. You have to do those shorter runs to get in shape for the longer runs. If all you do is long runs, you are going to pull something." He explained.

"YOU look, man. I am training for a MARATHON not a run around the block. The long runs are the important ones." I replied.

Ahem.

One week later, around mile 8 of a run, something began to hurt in my right knee.

"Suck it up" I told myself. "Run through the pain"

1/2 a mile later the pain was so great I had to stop - unfortunately, I was about 4 miles from my car . . . I hobbled back.

Not one to give up so easily, I launched into another run a week later. 1/4 mile into the run I wanted to kill myself, the pain in my knee was so great. I hobbled back to the car . . . .

It was the middle of January, Race day was 9 1/2 months away.

"Well good.", I told myself. "This is why I started training early. Now I have time to heal and start training again."

(to be continued . . .)