Where’s the peanut butter?!

Howard asked why I want to run a marathon which is a good question. Why would anyone want to do this? Your body can supposedly only hold about enough energy to carry you 20 miles or so before you hit “the wall” (”bonking” in cycling) and start burning fat to generate energy - it really doesn’t seem like something humans were designed for…

But there are a couple things I’ll get out of it. First, I love running. Maybe it comes from my grandfather on my mom’s side of the family but since I started running in high school recreationally it has definitely been what I consider the most satisfying form of exercise. Anyone can do it, all you really need are shoes, and it’s a fantastic way to get to know an area. There will always be music I listen to that takes me to runs in the frigid Minnesota winter near my high school, around the extended campus at UMass for the year I was there, around London the month I spent with my sister in college, around Cleveland and University Heights, and around Microsoft and Capitol Hill in Seattle.

I also love tests of endurance. After not rollerblading for a couple years, I finally got a pair again in Seattle a while ago and went out on the Burke-Gillman trail. I wasn’t in particularly good shape at the time and (foolishly) thought “oh, I’ll go around the lake.” This turned out to be a much further trip than I expected and after going a couple hours I decided to turn around and completely exhausted myself. I wasn’t properly hydrated, fed, or (still) in shape for the trip but the exhaustion afterward felt terrific. Similarly, a year ago some friends organized a hike on Mount Rainier up to Camp Muir, the base camp that most climbers summit Rainier from. I wasn’t really in shape for that, either, and it set the bar for most physically demanding exercise I’d ever done - and it was great! I’m doing that trip again this Saturday and really looking forward to it.

Finally, it’s an accomplishment I want to make in my life. A couple weeks ago I decided to stop not getting around to things I want to do in life and to try to just do more things and not worry about failure. “What if I don’t make my target time in the marathon?” “What if I can’t finish?” “How will I find the time to train properly?” “Fuck it,” I decided, “it’s time to stop talking about it and do it.” This was also what helped encourage me to quit my job even though I don’t have another one lined up immediately, to sink a couple thousand dollars into a scooter, and will probably get me to Singapore to visit a one of my best friends who I don’t get to see often enough and who wants to know why I’m running a marathon.

So there are a couple reasons, and I’m really glad about all of them.

UPDATE 2007.05.22 “The lake”

I should have clarified that when I mentioned rollerblading around
“the lake” I meant Lake Washington, not Green Lake (a difference of
about 35 miles).

I’ve decided I’m going to run a marathon this year - here’s how I’m doing my planning. I hope this is useful to others who might be thinking of running a marathon and a bunch of it is (I think) generalizable to other kinds of life organization using a couple handy websites.

• Training - Hal Higdon has a website that breaks down a training schedule to help you figure a plan to prepare and build endurance for the race. I contacted a few friends about this and got advice from my friend Katie, who I consider an eminently reputable source and she mentioned she’d used Hal’s program for her first marathon, so that sounds like a good place to start to me!
• Race selection - I initially just thought “I’ll do the Seattle marathon” but have been advised by my sister and a coworker that this might not be the best choice, so now I’m reconsidering and probably aiming for Victoria or Portland. But I’m keeping track of various runs and marathons in del.icio.us, which is a great online bookmarking system and makes it very easy for me to find, remember, and catalog links about different runs
• Scheduling - is made a little easier with Google Calendar. I created a custom calendar called “Organized runs” and have put the various upcoming Seattle area runs that I know of in there. It’s really easy for me to toggle the display of these runs on or off from my main calendar and also remember what’s coming up. This is pretty easy to share with someone else who might be willing to run with me, too.
• Training routes - lastly, I need a bunch of runs in various mile increments to hit the training goals set up by Hal’s program. There are running groups that leave from Green Lake near my house every weekend and I probably ought to get hooked up with them because they’ll have maps that get me to my exact target mileage. I’m pretty sure this would get me the motivation I need, too, and I’ll probably start going there. Meanwhile, I’m using the Google maps pedometer to find routes from my house and bookmarking these routes in delicious with the tags “run” and “route”. This way I (will eventually) have a convenient set of different runs at different distances to try and to keep hitting my goals.

So that’s how I roll. If you live in Seattle and would like to go for a run, I’ll be starting the Hal program this week (5/21) and don’t really have a set schedule yet (mornings vs. evenings) - just the mileage. But if you want to go, you should contact me!