As you may or may not know, I'm going to try and run the Waterloo Marathon on April 26th - exactly 100 days from now. So far, training has been a blast: I have fluid-filled blisters on both feet, a permanent patch of windburn on my cheek, a small toenail that seems to have disappeared, a routinely frozen goatee, ever-increasing bills from the Running Room, an enraging membership at Goodlife Fitness and balaclava-type hood that makes me look more likely to rob a liquor store than run a marathon.
Yes, I'm at the point where I'm wondering why I'm doing all of this.
I'd like to think it's a tribute to my dad, who told me last year that he wished he had ran a marathon when he was young and sprightly, and that maybe it would have put him on the road to better long-term cardiovascular health. With one quadruple bypass behind him and possibly facing another open-heart surgery (or worse), I thought he'd be happy to know I was taking my own health rather seriously these days, perhaps even enough to break the history of heart attacks and strokes that runs in my family.
Then there's Scott 'The Silver Bullet' Gibson, my running mentor if I ever had one. A veteran marathoner (including the venerable Big Five Marathon) and second-in-command at Lusaka Hash House Harriers, he planted the seed of serious long-distance running in my head. When I scoffed at the idea of breaking the 10k barrier, he explained the simple formula for marathon training: run 5 times weekly, including one long run that increases by 10 percent each week. Starting with your long run at 10k, you can be marathon-ready in four months. That sounded bizarrely possible.
Hell, there's even Heather, my first serious girlfriend, who dragged me out running with her when I was at a Ron Burgundy level of jogging ignorance. Apparently you do just run.
But to be honest, I'm not suffering through the pain, anger (in the case of Goodlife) and deprivation for any of those people. Luckily for me, I have plenty of selfish reasons to run.
I like the way I feel after I run. I like the solitude and the rare opportunity to think about whatever. I like the people-watching. I like exploring, finding interesting little things in my neighbourhood I wouldn't discover otherwise. I like blasting hype tracks. I like the functionality of being able to run well (comes in handy on Laurel Street). I like how I look as a result of running, even if I look utterly ridiculous in the process.
That's what keeps me running, to borrow a phrase from the Doobie Brothers. If it keeps up, I might just make it the 26.3 miles. It still seems like an absurd distance at this point, but so did the very idea of a marathon just a few months ago. A lot can change in 100 days.
3 comments:
Oh Brandon, very inspiring. I totally get you when you talk about the good feeling from running. That's why I do it too, at the end of the day. So how much do you run every day? How do you stand it in this cold?
Yes, the so-called 'Runners' High.' It ranks up there with some other stuff I've tried...
I'm on a training program that varies a lot depending on the day. Sunday is the long run day, which was 16km this week. I have Monday off but then it's Tuesday 6km, Wednesday 10km, Thursday 8km, Friday off then Saturday 6km. This is week 5 of the 18-week program. Later on, the runs vary between long distance and interval training, to prepare you for hills during the race.
I haven't run outside since I was back home for the holidays. I don't mind the cold so much as the unshoveled sidewalks that make it easy to roll an ankle. I've been doing the treadmill thing at Badlife ever since. Boring, but pragmatic until the snow melts!
Good on ya, bro. I've never been as big on the running, but I am hoping to return to working out (after a five-year lapse) when I get back to Canada. Feel free to constantly pester/shame me until I follow through. Something tells me you'll enjoy that, and do it more creatively than most.
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