26 miles through hades

Running is a funny thing. On the outside running is one of the most simple life activities a person can do. Moving one foot in front of the other at a faster pace than walking for however long you want is not rocket science. On the other hand, running can be one of the hardest physical or mental activities out there. How this phenomenon happens is beyond me and in no way am I going to be able to answer that question in this blog. All I can do is what I always do- tell you how my experiences have played out.

People tell me all the time they dont know how I run as often as I do or that they dont find running fun. Sometimes people ask me how I find running fun. Lets clear that up right now...I DO NOT think running is fun. I run for three reasons and three reasons only. 1) I find it fulfilling and destressing. There is a sense of pride to say you ran x amount of miles. Running also has the ability to just make the worries of the world disappear-even if its just for 15-20 minutes. 2) I run because I have to do it to stay in shape. 3) I run because I love the competition and pushing my body beyond what I think its capable of.

With that said, on May 2nd, my fitness freak brother Aaron and mortal me set out on our latest conquest ....Our first marathon. For the running impaired, a marathon is 26.2 miles. All marathons, not just the one we ran. The whole thing really started somewhere in late December. Aaron told me he wanted to run a marathon on January 1st. No training, no prep, just run one. While I verbally told him I thought he was insane and that it was the dumbest idea Ive ever heard, Im not one to back out of a challenge and was prepared to give it a go when the New year rolled around. Luckily for both of us, the Rochester weather did not cooperate and we were forced to stay inside and continue living.

January came and went and soon February was upon us. By the first week of February I had been out of competition for 3 full months. In my book, thats far too long. I needed my fix. So the search for the marathon began. Luckily with the help of Matt McDermott I was able to find one the first week of May on the Jersey shore. Aaron is a trooper and was more than willing to give it a go with me.

One key piece of information that I found out amidst my research after signing up for the marathon is that a typical program takes at least 18 weeks to prepare. We had left ourselves a mere 10 weeks. Whoops. Not a smart move but hey, gotta work with what we got. So after going through the prep and the long runs and the longer runs, it was finally time for race day.

Forecast- 10 days out....65 and partly cloudy. YESSS
Forecast- 7 days out....75 and partly cloudy...not too bad
Forecast- Day before...88 sunny and humid.......ut oh

Turns out the forecast was spot on. Thanks weather man. Poor Aaron had a rocky start to the day. Emma was up ALL night so our sleep was limited. He got sunscreen in his eye immediately, his contacts werent working so he had to ditch one, and we had to take a detour to the race so we didnt exactly have ample time to warmup (or pee for that matter).

Mile 1- 6:56. CRAP. Too fast. Its the infamous trap everyone tells you not to fall into and we had just done that only a mile into the race. Luckily with a potty stop and some adjustments we settled into our goal pace of 7:30 for most of the first half of the marathon. We crossed the line at 1 hour and 40 minutes for the first 13.1 miles. Feeling happy with ourselves.

Enter extreme heat and humidity. Not good. It must be noted that after the first half of the marathon was over we lost about 80% of the participants. Clearly this race for geared towards the half marathon crowd. A crowd I quickly started wondering if I should have joined. Aaron on the other hand was probably wondering why we werent winning the race like he usually does...jk :)

Our pace gradually declined as the miles wore on. 13, 14, 15, 16. Surely 20 must be soon I thought to myself. Ahead I see a sign for mile 17...."we're only at mile 17?!?" This became a fairly consistent pattern for the next few miles. With the clock ticking and our legs growing ever more tired it became a game of mine to run to the next aid station for gatorade, GU, bananas and whatever else the wonderful race crew decided to give out. Those lovely stations were my favorite part of the race. Slowly but surely we continued our pace from one mile to the next. Every mile marker was a sign that even though it felt like I was running under water, we were making progress and the end was near. By mile 24 we had found a new sense of life in our minds and our legs had no choice but to keep up. Our pace quickened and we hit the boardwalk for the final stretch with feeling of pride, anticipation, and excitement. After all, the finish was straight ahead. What we didnt know is that the straightaway was a lot longer than we had convinced ourselves it was. One step after another our pace continued to increase until we were in a dead sprint for the finish. At last....we crossed the line and gained a new title.....marathoners.

Many people have asked me how the marathon went since I ran it and a lot of people have asked me if it was hard. Ive had a hard time putting into words how the marathon was. It was a lot of things. It was fulfilling, it was "fun" in some weird, twisted form of the word, it was painful, it was rewarding, it was mentally draining. All in all, it was a lot of things. When its all said and done, it was motivating. Motivating to improve. To do better, to push harder, to see what this body is capable of. Was it hard?? YES. It was the hardest thing Ive ever done in my life physically. There was a time when I thought the 5 minute mile was bad. Today it seems like a walk in the park. Oh how perspective changes.

If there is one thing Ive learned through this its that the mind is a powerful thing and the body will work a lot harder than it wants to. Sure the body complains a lot and tries to tell you its tired after the smallest amount of exercise but the reality is that if you convince yourself with your mind that your body is fine and continue, it will. Ive learned that if you can remain strong between your ears for however long you need to, your body will have no choice but to listen to your mind. Mind over matter.

Well, I guess I better go find my next race

Later days