New Year’s Resolutions Blog

My New Year’s Resolution: Run a Marathon!

Monday, January 1st, 2007

All right, so I was trying to be super secretive about my resolution until now, to create some kind of suspense. I wanted the blog world to get in a tizzy about what Tracy would do in 2007. I don’t think that really happened, unfortunately, but I guess I can tell you my resolution anyway…

I’m going to run a marathon in 2007! And not just any marathon–the San Francisco Marathon! It’s on July 29, so I have a little over 6 months to get myself in shape for this big event. Since the furthest I’ve ever run in my life is about 10 miles, I have quite a ways to go! But I’ve already paid my registration fee ($95! I better run this thing considering how much it cost), and I’ve picked out a training plan.
I’m running about 20 miles a week at this point, which is nothing compared to marathon training, but I think it’s better than starting with no fitness level. I ran track in high school, and I’ve done a few 5k runs as an adult, so I have some appreciation for how hard running can be. I’ve picked out a 26-week beginner marathon training program that I think will help me reach my goal. I’ll be starting the program exactly 26 weeks before the marathon because I want to stick exactly to the schedule–if I start “cheating” and doing a mile less here or there, or switching around the days or weeks of the plan, I don’t know if I’ll ever get back on track. So hopefully that won’t happen!

I’ve never really wanted to run a marathon before, but I think this is my year. I feel like I always shied away from the idea of running a marathon because I thought that training for it would involve running 20-odd miles several times a week, which seemed pretty daunting (not to mention time-consuming). But since I started looking into training programs, I discovered that most of the novice training plans have you running 15-20 miles only once a week, balanced out by shorter runs during the rest of the week. That sounded a lot more do-able, so I decided to give it a go.

I’ve actually been running an approximation of the first two weeks of the marathon training program for a while now, so starting the schedule won’t feel any harder than continuing my current workout plan. I expect some soreness as my long runs get longer, but since I’m already anticipating it I think I can get through the pain. My only worry is that a major injury will get in the way of my training and slow me down–but I’m determined not to have wasted $95 on this entry fee, so I’m ordering my body not to get hurt.

So that’s that. Do you think I’m crazy for running a marathon? Well, if you do, check out the Marathon Maniacs, Dean Karnazes, and other Ultramarathoners–they’re way more crazy than I’ll ever be! When I get discouraged during the training, I’ll just thank god I’m not running 100 miles… yikes!

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