26.2 at 47: The Final Stretch

This is a continuation of my hubs 26.2 at 47: A Marathon Story, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, all about training for my first marathon:

I just finished another weekend long run - 18 miles again. Just so I don't leave anyone with the wrong impression, doing this is not easy. It's grueling, and long, and when you're finished, your body tells you in a hundred ways why you shouldn't do that again. As a result of those, you seek out things like underarmor, compression socks, glide, etc., but honestly, there's nothing to take for just general muscular fatigue (except Ibuprofen and rest, of course!)

My strategy is to go out as reasonably strong as possible, but really what works best for me is just go half the distance I want to go straight up the bike trail. So when I get there, I have no choice but to run back. So when you run nine ... you get the picture.

So it's six weeks away as of the time I write this. This is uncharted territory. I've done half marathons before, and I've run 18 miles before. What comes next is something I haven't done - longer and longer weekend runs, and more grueling speed runs during the week. Sometimes, when I'm running - and you have lots of thinking time when you run - I remind myself I'm volunteering to do this. No one's making me. And honestly, I'm a grown adult - if I stopped today, no one would fault me for it.

But I'm not. Because it's not about anyone else. It's about me. And my belief in myself, and in my capacity to do things that are lofty and worthy of my attention. It's analogous to so many other things in life that I strive for. I can put in effort here, and have a specific predetermined result there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." ~ Mark Twain

You know how when you're watching a movie and the plot is going forward smoothly and, being a seasoned movie viewer, you know there's about to be a plot shift where there's a setback for the protagonist that he has to overcome before the climactic end? Well, mine wasn't so much physical (fortunately), but something significant in my personal life. And, try as I might not to let it affect my training, my mind had other plans.

So I took off one day, then another, then another, and the next thing I know I'm huffing and puffing doing fewer miles than before. With only about five weeks to go, this was trouble. So, little by little I've had to step up my game. While at one point I was thinking if I continued my half marathon pace, I would just sneak in under the wire to qualify for the Boston Marathon, now I'm back to my original thinking that is a bit less ambitious. Just finish. Respectably. Without injury. And that has to be good enough!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We must accept life for what it actually is - a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

So back on the plan. Eating right, sleeping right, and running right are the essential ingredients to not sustaining injuries and to fully putting myself into a positively memorable experience.

When I started this goal, knowing the marathon was on December 4, I decided I needed to run at least one twenty-miler before the end of October. So on October 30, I set out on that task. I ran, and ran and ran and felt pretty strong. I kept going, ran into another friend who is also doing the CIM, and at last made it to the halfway point, turned around and started back. Keep in mind, my long-run strategy is to run one direction for - in this case - ten miles, so I have no choice but to do the full distance in order to make it back. Because if I was near my car at the 15 mile mark, I guarantee you I would quit. But as uncomfortable as I was, I pressed on to the end. I'll tell you one thing - the full marathon is not going to be a walk in the park!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” - Steve Prefontaine

Okay, this wasn't in the script. As soon as the weather turned cold, I came town with a nasty cold that knocked me on my butt for several days. When you have a month before a marathon, this is pretty discouraging, but I decided I had to just let it run its course, and sit, read, watch movies and groan about how much my head and throat hurt. One of those mornings, I drugged myself up, and did a short, easy run, which actually felt better. When the weekend came, I looked up articles about running when sick and one of the best said symptoms below the neck require time off, while symptoms above the neck shouldn't pose a risk to runners. However, another doctor said to wait 72 hours because some sinus infections stressed by exercise can lead to pneumonia or respiratory failure.

So I waited. And after the requisite three days, ran a slow and easy 16 miles. And felt better.

So now with less than a month to go, I'm faced with what I call the true test of commitment. Yes, I've ran 20 miles in training for a race that is 26.2. It sounds very close ... to a non-runner. Unfortunately, on both a psychological and physical level, it isn't. I have to consistently, religiously stay focused, making training a priority. If I don't, I will either get injured and not make it, lose my ability to maintain my cardiovascular sustenance or simply lose my will to finish.

And, of course, there's Thanksgiving between now and then! Life is a series of challenges and setbacks. Like with many sports, running provides me with anecdotal food, from which to dispassionately reflect on my life experience. Whether a tragedy, comedy or sonnet is largely a matter of choice.

And I choose to recover and finish strong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible." ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Marathon Series: 26.2 at 47: A Marathon Story, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, The Final Stretch (Part 5) and I'm a Marathoner! (Part 6).