Into the breach again
Category: Sports
I don’t like running. I’ve heard that others get runner’s high, or an endorphin rush, and that’s what addicts them to running; that if they miss a day of running, they’ll feel guilty and grouchy all day. I get no such thing; a day without running is a relief for me.
Ironically though, I do run marathons. If you were to take a look at my running career, they are populated mostly by marathons; I have run a small handful of 10K runs, mostly as a result of factors other than just wanting to run a 10K. The first 10K run I did was because friends of mine had gotten married the day before, and decided to do wedding run, complete with an abbreviated bridal outfit and rented tux. I ran as a bridesmaid.
I run marathons simply because I can. Most people set what their idea of their limits far too low. There’s been events foisted into my life that’s taught me that our physical limits are much higher than what we believe we are capable of. I kind of enjoy that little bit of personal, solitary suffering that marathoning gives me, but that’s about all I get out of finishing a marathon. Since I detest running, I try to maximize my return on investment by training as little as I can, and getting as much a payoff as I can from the training. In the 2 out of 3 years that I previously ran marathons, I basically trained for one marathon, but ended up running multiple marathons without any more additional training. I capped off what I believed to be my final marathon in November 2003 by training for and participating in the Chicago marathon, and then running in the following consecutive weekends: Baltimore marathon, Marine Corp marathon in DC, and ending with the New York City marathon. The brutality of that was, what I felt, a fitting culmination to my marathon career.
Well, I’m back again! I got conned into running the Richmond, VA marathon this November 11. Conned in the sense that I have bunch of friends who talk about running marathons. Amy was one of those friends. She and I talked of marathons. Then one day, Amy sends me an email alerting me to the Richmond marathon being far enough in the calendar for us to start training, and relatively close enough to drive there. I replied the email saying it looked interesting. A couple of hours later, she forwards me her registration confirmation for the marathon, which kind of obligated me to respond in kind with my own registration confirmation.
So, I’m back into the running shoes and pounding out hundreds and hundreds of training miles in the next four and a half months.