"The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon."
- Fred Lebow, Co-Founder of the New York City Marathon
Back in January, I decided that 2012 was the year I would run a marathon. Of course, I put my name in for the New York City lottery and said a little prayer. In April, when New York didn't pan out, I decided that I would run the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis. I have had friends run it who have said that it is a great first marathon. Plus, it's in Indy --> my second home. The course actually runs through Butler's campus. How awesome is that!?!
For all of my Indy friends (and anyone else who wants to come to town & cheer me on, here's a map of the course.
Coaching Cross Country has made training extremely easy. Keeping up my weekly mileage and long runs were easy & fun. The marathon is November 3rd, so I started my longer training runs in September. 13, easy. 15, not bad, 18 - I might have spent the entire day in bed after finishing the run...and that brings us to today's 20 miler.
After the Downtown Doubler (30K) two weeks ago, I was a bit nervous about the jump up to 20. What I remembered this morning, never underestimate the power of a running buddy. Kari & I met at 7:30 and started our 20 mile journey on the Ohio River Greenway (which I didn't know existed until today, by the way). I have run different parts of it on shorter runs, but didn't realized it connected for so far. Miles 1-16 were easy. By that 17th mile marker I was feeling myself start to slow down. Then I remembered that I only had a 5K left. Psh. 5Ks - I run those every day!
It's such a great feeling - running 20 miles. It was an even better feeling when after a shower, lunch & 2 hour nap, I actually felt human! We'll see if that changes when I wake up this morning. If any of my co-workers are reading this - I might or might not be able to get out of bed and come to work tomorrow!
34 days to go. Only 1 final training run between now & then. It's so close, I can feel it. I can't wait to cross that finish line & cross the marathon off of my bucket list :)
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