Well this just in, I've officially lost my mind. Or at least it appears to be that way. I've decided that I'm going to be running a marathon next year. 26.2 miles, 138,336 feet, 1,660,032 inches, or 64.24% of Brett Favre's career passing yardage (on 12/15/2010). Wow that's a lot of miles, feet, or inches. Pretty much no matter which metric you put it with, it's far... real far.
So a sane person may ask "Hey why you doing this?". Well I think it's a combination of things that have led me to the conclusion that I want to run a marathon.
- I had reached my current fitness goals about 2 months ago and I've just plateaued since then.
- My trainer has been forced to take a night class and won't be able to teach the wicked mean class I currently take twice a week.
- Since I've become hooked on NBC's 'Biggest Loser' show, I've seen several people go from morbidly obese to running a marathon in like 6 months, and they've half inspired me and half made me think why the hell can't I do that?
- But most importantly, I feel that I need a far off challenging goal in life right now.
Growing up I always had goals ahead of me, whether I liked it or not. It starts with do good in school (very general), then progresses to graduate high school, make the varsity soccer team, go to college, be the best SAE I could be, pass calculus (haha stupid class), graduate college, go to grad school, move to Dallas, make it on my own in Dallas, graduate from grad school, find a good job. Well all those things are done now (along with a few other things I guess I've accomplished along the way) so I need something else. I hate being stagnant, I want to continue to be better tomorrow than I was today. Lately I'm not sure that has been happening. I feel as if this will be a guiding force that helps me be better.
So what better challenge than the ultimate feat of athletic ability, something only 1% of people have done? I say this is perfect!
I've even decided on when and where I'll run my marathon. I'll be running 26.2 miles on December 4th, 2011 in the White Rock Lake Marathon here in Dallas.
Now I've been told by a couple people that I need to join a running group and use them for motivation and a good training plan, so that will be in the works. But first I think I need to get myself to a "training ready" point. My current 1 mile run 4-5 times a week is nice for me and Beau but won't cut it when training for a marathon. So today I bumped it up to 1.8 miles and over the next 3 months I'll get to running 3-4 miles a day several times a week. From the preliminary research I've done I think at that point I'll be able to start my official training. Coming off a year where I battled shin splints I want to make sure I do this right and in a smart way, I feel great physically now and I want to keep it that way.
So if any of you have ran one before please offer your words of wisdom and encouragement. If you haven't ran, words of encouragement will still be much appreciated as I go through a very interesting year in 2011.
You can also keep track of my training by using the link above this post, and I'll surely keep my faithful following posted on your favorite blog of all time (hint hint, this one).
WHITE ROCK HERE I COME!
