Marathon Training

As I near the end of my semester, my marathon draws closer and closer. I don't think I've ever been this excited to do something so physically demanding. As a former swimmer, I've been conditioned to enjoy grueling workouts and I find new physical challenges really fun and exciting. There's no denying how ready I am mentally to run this marathon, but at the same time, I am a little bit nervous.

I have just about four weeks left until the race and I haven't even hit my peak mileage yet. The farthest run that I have to do before the race is 20 miles, which makes me a little nervous. That's adding a whole 6.2 miles onto the actual race distance! But I guess there's power in a plan, and I've been following mine fairly well. True, I do adjust my plan to fit my weekly schedule, which means that if I don't have time to do a 7 mile tempo on Monday, I'll swap it for my Tuesday 4 mile and do the tempo the next day. But no matter matter what, I always make sure that I get in the necessary runs. I'll have to trust that my plan will have me physically prepared to run this race.

Another thing that makes me somewhat apprehensive about running this marathon is that I have absolutely no idea what to expect. What do I eat the night before? The morning of? Afterwards? Am I even going to be hungry afterwards? I really hope that I don't vomit, or worse, get randomly injured. I'll have to know my body, know when I need to walk, when I need to grab some gatorade, know when I should stop and take a gel pack. Should I even take a gel pack or should I do some of those weird running espresso beans or fruit snack things? Again, part of this goes back to the training, experimenting on my training runs so that I know what works for me and what doesn't. But aside from this, I also don't really know what to expect from the course and the race organizers. I can only take comfort in the fact that people organizing it have definitely done this before and know what they're doing. As far as the course goes, I guess I'll find out once I get there.

Pushing aside all of my concerns, I really, truly, am very excited to run this marathon! I can't wait until race day, when all the adrenaline of toeing the starting line and running with the huge crowd will pump me up and allow me to forget all of my worries. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on the remainder of my training, the actual race, and, of course, what I liked and maybe didn't enjoy so much about the whole endeavor. Until then, just keep swimming! :)

This has nothing to do with running but I felt that this post needed a picture.