TC Marathon

I registered for my first ever (and possibly last) marathon yesterday. My friend Erica and I will be running the Twin Cities marathon on Sunday, October 1st. We are a little unsure of how to train for it, but fortunately I found a training guide that starts 18 weeks before the marathon, almost exactly where we are at right now. Also fortunate is the fact that there are various levels for training, including a novice level which fits perfectly with our condition right now and our goal for the marathon: not quite in shape and just to finish. It starts fairly slow and builds up, obviously, so the first couple of weeks ease into it, which is just what I need. I had started running about a month ago now, when finals hit me and I had no time to spare for working out, which means I'm not entirely out of shape but pretty close. With a week or 2 of running, though, I should be in a fairly good position to start some longer runs, which is about what the training guide looks like. Perfect. Eric will be running with me on my shorter runs, but by the time I get past 5 (which will be sooner rather than later, since I need to work up to 26.2 by the time October rolls around!) he will be biking with me instead. I'm really excited to run the marathon, it's something that has been on my list for a long time, but I'm also really nervous because I haven't seriously trained since I quite cross country 2 years ago. I'm really out of shape and it is going to take a lot of work to get ready for 26 miles and change. Luckily I am not running the marathon by myself, otherwise this would be even more difficult! My goal is just to finish, no set time although a respectable time for a first-timer who was never very competitive would be around 4 or 4 1/2 hours, so that is about what we're shooting for.

Look for more posts about training in the future! I'll hopefully be updating more now that school is done for the year and since I have a lot of running ahead of me I will probably post frequently about that, as well as some of my other summer goals. For now, I am just trying to ease into summer and marathon training before the hard work starts!

"Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was ever going somewhere, I was running!"