Pre Marathon Musings

Posted on December 18th, 2016

Three weeks from now, I hope I’m reporting “I did it!” Ian and I are starting our new year by running the Walt Disney World Marathon, our first, on January 8. We’ve been training for months and fundraising for our favorite cause, JDRF. This is my third Run Disney event, and they are so well run (pun intended!) and a total blast. Nevertheless, I’m a little anxious at the prospect. Ian is just focusing on perfecting our costumes. So basically all is as expected. Photos from last year’s half below (and more on that experience here)!

We chose to follow Hal Higdon’s intermediate plan, as even though this is our first full marathon we both had a pretty solid mileage base built up.  Yesterday, we ran 21 miles in 21 degree weather.  We’re just now starting to taper, which coincides well with my plan to spend the coming weeks as a bowl-game-watching couch potato.

Generally, training has been an interesting exercise in discipline, determination, and faith. It has been a key driver in our lifestyle this fall, particularly on the weekends with the longest runs. On Friday nights, we’re in bed early after a healthy, booze-free dinner so we can get up at 5:30 Saturday morning to hit the trail. Saturday afternoons often require a little recovery—napping, basically—and Saturday evening, I’m often too wiped to be much fun. Not ideal, but worth it for the accomplishment.

I still completely love running a half marathon distance, but I confess that after about two hours, the miles start to feel a little excessive. I don’t feel like I’ve had “a better workout” after 18 miles instead of 13. I’ll be happy for the personal achievement of running a marathon, and I actually anticipate that the event itself will be fun. While I will definitely continue with half marathons and distance running, and running for Team JDRF is always an honor, right now marathon training is not an experience I anticipate replicating in the near future.

But in the meantime, this. is. happening.  Ready or not, here we come.

PS Does anyone have any marathoning tips to share? Any and all advice is appreciated!