Here Goes. . .

I recently registered for the 2011 Ogden Marathon.  I am freaking out a little bit now.  Here are some questions that I have been asked recently about marathons, along with my responses:

Q: How long is a marathon?

A: 26.2 miles (stomach tightens into hundreds of tight, uncomfortable knots) 

Q: How long does it take to run that far?

A: I have no idea how long it will take me to run it but I have to be done in 6 hours, that's when they clear the course.  (fingers begin trembling)

Q: Have you ever run a marathon before?

A: No- the farthest I have ever run is 6 miles, and that was over a year ago. (beads of sweat gather on my forehead)

Q: Are you currently running?

A: No... I mean, yes...I mean, kind of.  I just started again.  (a small whimper escapes my throat) 

Q: How long until the marathon?

A: 214 days 18 hours 20 minutes 10 seconds (my breath comes in quick, shallow gasps)   

Q: Why would you want to do this?

A:  Ummm. . .  (decide that the best coping mechanism is denial & try to think about May 21, 2011 as little as possible) 

My First Retraction

About three hours after posting my "Motivation" post the whole "Relay Plan" completely fell apart. Now, I am forced to post a retraction. I've never done a retraction before so, I am not sure about all of the details or the correct way to do it, but I'll do my best. Here we go:

"Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will no longer be participating in the Ogden Marathon Relay. I will however, in the near future, find and commit to participating in a similar event."

How did I do?

I am actually a little disappointed that we won't be able to do the relay, but I am excited to find another race to participate in with my Mom and my see-ster.

Motivation

Well, I have put it off long enough and now I have some proper motivation to get out of bed and do some running. The Ogden Marathon Relay is coming up in May and I have committed to be on a team. There are 5 legs of the 26.2 mile course, each section ranges in distance from 3.5 miles to 7 miles. We are still working out the details, so I'm not sure which distance I will be doing, but we have to register by the end of the month.

This is actually my favorite way of tricking myself into running. See, I register with a team, then there are 4 other people who are counting on me to do my part, so, I'm pretty much stuck. No backin' out. By the time the race comes, I am enjoying running again and I want to keep it up.

I once heard a woman say that she won't let herself get ready in the morning until she has read her scriptures. It makes me feel better to know that I am not the only one out there who has to trick myself into doing something that I know I should be doing anyway.

Why I Run

That is such a deceptive title since, right now, I am not running at all. But that is exactly why I wanted to do this post: to remind myself of all of the reasons that I enjoy running while I am being consistent with it. A little motivation, because even though I really enjoy it while I am immersed in it, I really hate getting started again after I have let it slip. So, I guess you could call this my pep talk.

My parents are both extremely athletic. Don't misunderstand me, I mean it: EXTREMELY athletic. While growing up, both of my parents were avid runners, both would regularly train for marathons (that's 26.2 miles) and other races. As the years have passed, their activity level has increased. My dad has participated in the Wasatch 100 a few times. This is an endurance run through the mountains, and as the name suggests, it is 100 miles long. He and my mom have both participated in Lotoja, a bike race that starts in Logan, Utah and ends in Jackson, Wyoming- 205 miles. Yeah, extremely athletic.

Now, back to my running past. Actually, it's pretty non-existent. I have had people use the phrase "it's in your blood." That may be, but I don't think that my blood realizes it. In high school, after both of my older brothers did very well on the cross country team, expectations for me were high too. I participated in choir instead. In fact, I actively avoided becoming involved in running. I wanted to be my own person with my own talents. When asked if I ran, my reply was always "if someone is chasing me."

So, imagine my surprise when, a few years ago, I started running and I liked it. Yes, it was hard, but after I did it for awhile, I really liked it. I looked forward to going in the mornings. I liked the way that my body felt as I got better at it. I felt healthy and fit. I felt confident and independent. Now, I wasn't running very fast (at all) and I wasn't going very far (my longest run, to date, is 5 miles), but I was enjoying it. Weird.

I've let things in the running department slide, but I've got the itch again. Last night, I couldn't fall asleep and my mind turned to the familiar, rhythmic pace that my body would fall into as I ran. I recounted every detail: the feel of my foot hitting the pavement, then pushing off again, the smooth pumping of my arms and the perfect song playing on my MP3 player. It was strange, but that thing that I avoided for so long, that thing I thought would steal my identity, was the thing that I was missing.