Running a Marathon – Bucket List Item, check.

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Running a Marathon – Bucket List Item, check.

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My frie

nd asked if I was interested in training for a marathon. “Nope, but I’ll do it anyway.” Was I interested in running a marathon? Nope. Why did I respond with that? I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I wanted to conquer that mountain. I wanted to strike it off of this grand list before I even knew I had a bucket list.

3 of us were set to do it. So I looked up a marathon training guide online. 3 months of consistent methodical training.

And I trained. It was winter. It was cold.

I trained. My roommate that was going to do it with me snapped his ankle on a curb while training. He’s out.

I kept training. 6 mile runs, 3 mile runs, breaks, 7 mile runs. My friend told me that a great goal was to get my time under 4 hours.

I kept training. My longest training run was approximately 20 miles.

A month before the race, my friend informed me that she hadn’t been training like she should and that she was only going to run the half marathon. I wasn’t backing out now. I was running the full 26.2 miles.

I ran it. With this guy (who had apparently run something like 800+ marathons) <<<<——————–

My time? 3 hours 58 minutes 27 seconds. Approximately 2 minutes beneath my goal.

The good news. It can be done easily if you prepare. Because I trained well and ate a nice carb filled meal the night before, I wasn’t even sore after the race!

So if you have a desire, pick a race. Not 3 years later. 6 months out. Pick the race. Now. Sign up. Pay. Put your money out there. Have a friend sign up. Nobody you know want to run? Put an ad on Craigslist. Get on the interwebs. Get a simple book like Marathon Training for Non-Runners (aff link). Facebook it. Find a running buddy. Get accountable. Find a training regiment and do it. Train. Train hard. And knock it off your list.

When I finished running the race, my friends asked how I liked my first marathon. I said, “Oh, you mean my first and last? It was all good.” It’s been about 5 years. Haven’t run another one. Yet…

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#adventureoflife #running