My Marathon Journey…
What would make a person want to run a marathon? It just doesn’t make sense for someone to want to run a marathon (26.2 miles). I come from a running background, ran cross country in high school which each race was 5000 meters or 3.1 miles. During that time I always thought the distance was long. When my sister ran a couple of marathons she said I should give it a try. At first I was like no, I don’t need to run one. Have you ever had a person that is more excited about you doing something than you are? That was my sister after months of talking about it I finally was ready to take the plunge. I signed up for my first marathon. It was in Madison where we lived at the time. Yeah, I was going to run a marathon.
Training what training?
I started to train and run when I could, my training usually consisted of running at least 4-5 days a week. I only had a couple of months to get ready so I did the best I could. As the weeks of the race drew closer, I only was able to get up to a 16 mile training run. I thought to myself, I’ll be ok, my goal was just to finish the marathon, nothing else.
The day of my 1st marathon -2003
I remember being pretty nervous the night before, thinking am I going to finish this thing, did I train enough? I got up a couple hours before the race and had a piece of toast and drank some water. I remember being at the starting line and the gun going off, it was go time for me. It was a beautiful day to run in the city of Madison, sunny about 55 degrees at the start. I remember running and being cheered on by so many people, it was an awesome feeling. I had a decent pace throughout the race at mile 20 I started to cramp up and get some pains in my legs, my muscles just seemed like they were locking up, forcing me to walk at times. My sister was there cheering me on, "you can do it" and telling me, you know what you are going to get close to qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Coming up to the finish line, I gave it all I could, my feet were a mess, blisters and toenails ready to come right off. Hitting that finish line was absolutely worth it though as I just completed a marathon (time 3:18)! Wow, did that ever change my perception on a 5k being a long race. It took me about a week to recover a bit as my body was sore and my legs and feet were trying to heal up.
Another marathon - 2004
Why not? I decided to run another marathon, this time it was the Lakefront Marathon along Lake Michigan. I upped my training for this one running 5-6 days a week and trying to beat my time from last year. The winds shifted the night before and it looked like we were going to be running into the wind for most of the race. The conditions were perfect about 40’s at the start of the race, but the breeze was a bit tough. When trying to run for a personal record, many things need to line up for you. The day didn’t go as planned. I thought I trained enough, maybe too much as I felt tired and burned out on race day. I ended up running a full 9 minutes slower and was a bit disappointed. I did finish the race, but again I was not a happy camper.
Give it a go one more time – 2005
The Chicago marathon here I come. I was really excited for this race as I heard it was one of the fastest courses in America and I may be able to run a fast enough time to qualify for the Boston marathon. My wife and I stayed in a nice hotel the night before and I was ready to go. I went with a less is more training plan and ran at most 4 days a week, even 3 days a week at times. I felt great on race day, again, the conditions were fantastic, high 40’s to start with temps getting into the 60’s. What a spectacle of a race. The Kenyans were there ready to push their limits for record times and thousands and thousands more (30,000+ runners) were ready for the starting gun to go off. The butterflies were in my stomach while the gun went off. During the first few miles the streets of Chicago were jammed packed with spectators cheering on the runners. I was just taking it all in as this was one of the biggest marathons in the U.S. and it almost felt like I wasn’t running at times as taking in the views of the city had my mind wandering throughout the race. My wife and sister were at a couple points to cheer me on, but it was hard to spot them at times. The race was going as planned, I was running a sub 7 min mile pace through 21 miles and then it hit me, the wall. My calf muscle tightened up and then my hamstring at mile 22. It gave me no choice but to walk it off and walk it off I did. My thought at the time was, “I got to get running again to hit my goal of 3:10 to earn a spot in the Boston marathon”, but the cramps just wouldn’t go away, I drank Gatorade to help me, I managed at mile 24 to start to jog again. I managed to get to a run again and could see the finish line, I turned the corner and ran as fast as my body could and finished. As I crossed the finish line I looked at the clock and saw that I was 2 minutes over, I was bummed that I didn’t qualify. As I found my wife I wanted to look at the bright side as I ran my fastest marathon time and life was good.
Marathons are much like life
My experience with running marathons has given me a new perspective of life. Before I decided to run a marathon a part of me was limited to beliefs about what was possible in life. After having the experiences of running a few marathons it has given me the attitude of anything is possible if you believe it can be done. Remember to believe in yourself! Thanks for going on my marathon journey with me!