Marathon

I've decided to take on another marathon. I decided a month ago that I was going to train for the Ogden Marathon in May. But then days later a little pink line canceled out that plan to cross the finish line, and I started making plans to wear maternity clothes instead of my running shoes. Then that plan also changed. So, I'm back to my original goal of training for a marathon.

At church the other week, I had someone tell me they had seen me out running the day before. I told them I was training to run another marathon, and they asked, "Do you run the whole thing?". I laughed and said, "No". For those of you who are thinking about running, but doubt your abilities, I thought I'd share my take on marathon running.

I am not a great runner. I'm not even a good runner. In fact, I'm a really lousy runner. But I try to run, which is more that most people do. When I take on a training run, I look at the distance and tell myself that I need to go x amount of miles, and it doesn't matter how long it takes me. Of course, I try to push myself as hard as I can, but I don't stress about how much of it is running. I run while I can, I walk when I need to, then I run again. If my body is hurting, I take it a little slower. I do the distance at a pace that is enjoyable for me. Why would you run if you were miserable doing it? Maybe someday I'll have the time to devote to training and have a shot at becoming a good runner. But for now almost all my time and energy is put into raising my 5 children (and all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc that goes along with that). I have very little time to train, but I do what I can. The way I see it, when the day of the marathon comes, no one is going to care if I walk 6 of the miles, because that means I still ran 20 miles--and that is pretty amazing. If I cross the finish line, I have succeeded, no matter how long it takes me.

I get asked a lot why I run. I usually answer, "to try and get back into shape", or "to have some time alone". On my 6 mile run two weeks ago, a song played on my IPOD that summed up my reason for running in one line. It's a U2 song, and the line is, "She's running to stand still". That is why I run. My life is crazy. When I run, I leave it all behind and it's just me. I don't have to worry about the kids, or the finances, or the house, or anything else. I just have to worry about putting one foot in front of the other. I found myself this last Saturday, smiling at mile 4 when a bunch of geese flew over me--something so very simple that I wouldn't have noticed if I weren't in the calm of running. I pay attention to the way the sun looks through the trees. I love the feel of my feet beating down on the pavement. I love the rhythmic sound of my breathing. I love feeling strong and invincible. I love that the further I run, the further I get away from life--each mile gets more and more peaceful. I love that time stands still for me and all I have to do is run. I run to have peace. I run to stand still.

And so the training commences. Every Saturday from now till the middle of May, you will find me out running. Three Saturdays ago it was 5 miles, the next week it was 6, this past Saturday it was 7 miles. As I got back on Saturday, I reported my time to Scott (1 hour 20 minutes). "That's pretty good time, right?" he asked. I told him it wasn't my best time, then added, "But I just went 7 miles--that's good no matter how long it took me--it's 7 miles!" And that's what it boils down to for me--I go the distance, no matter how fast or slow, and I think that is impressive enough.