I had originally conceived of this blog to be an informational one – coming up with topics that I could research and digest and then break down so those who are newer to running would find it easily accessible. Turns out, while I like that format, I am not great at keeping up with it. So, I shall turn this into more of a freeform blog chronicling my journey through training for my first marathon. Hopefully, I can record enough thoughts, ideas, and activities that if I should decide to do this marathon thing again, I will have a resource to look back on to tell me what worked, what didn’t, and laugh at how ridiculously naive I was.
So, I am training for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., on October 27, 2019. I was talked into doing it by my friend Melissa, a year and a half ago. I first met Melissa through Potterhead Running Club, and then we met in person when she was in DC to run MCM in 2017. I’m not entirely sure how it came up, but there was a comment thread on Facebook where she mentioned that she wanted to run it again in 2019, and essentially told me I was going to run it with her. I agreed mostly because if a person is going to run their first marathon with anyone, Melissa is an ideal person with whom to do it. She’s bubbly and fun and has done enough races that she’s really out there just to have a good time. If she convinces you to do a race, she sticks with you even though you know she could run it much faster, because she wants you to have a great time.
So, I’m doing this, but I’m not doing it alone. In addition to Melissa, my friends Tania and Laura and coming into town to run it as well. Tania ran MCM last year her first marathon, and it was so damn inspiring to see her go from running her first half (which I got to run with her) to her first full, that I finally really believed I could do run this thing. Laura, who hails from Boston, entered the lottery thinking there’s no way she’d get in. A few days after I had announced that I was registered, I received a text from her saying “I think I made a mistake….” followed by her entry confirmation. I was shocked and thrilled! It’s her first marathon as well, so it’s nice to have someone to commiserate with, despite the geographical distance between us.
I’m still in the early stages of training, when it’s still relatively easy. None of the distances I’ve been scheduled to do so far are anything I haven’t done before. The hardest parts are that A) it’s July, so it’s hot AF out, which means getting up early to run in slightly cooler weather and I am not an early riser by nature; B) my plan calls for running 4x a week, which is more than I usually do; and C) the increase in the amount of exercise means that I am hungry ALL THE TIME and want to eat ALL THE THINGS. But in general, it seems to be going well. And on the plus side, running in my neighborhood in the morning means I get to see all of the doggos on their morning walkies!
Until next time, Sun Chasers!
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