After 3.5 miles, an icky feeling started to sink in—I started out way too fast, I was running on an empty tank, and I wasn’t carrying any water with me. I was running along a gravel road with no shade, and the sun was glaring down. There was prairie on either side of me, but I thought that this must be what the desert felt like. I managed to slog through to the finish, mostly thanks to “Hey Ya!” coming on at a most opportune moment.
When I got back to camp, I was anxious to tell Abe all about the run: how good it felt in the beginning, the mistakes I made, and the suffering at the end. I was babbling between gulps of water, and realized that this wasn’t the first time I had done this to him. I realized that I could spare him a lot of “mm-hmm-ing” and other Positive Minimal Responses by creating a blog and using it to recount my adventures while running and biking. (Abe, however, swears that he enjoys hearing about it. Bless his heart, he’s a good guy.)
So that’s the story of the beginning of my blog. I’m starting this blog as I wrap up 18 weeks of training for my first marathon, so, in a way, it seems a bit late. Yet these past weeks have been amazing—challenging and fun and everything in between. What has stuck with me the most has been the experience of running hours at a time, with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. Some might say that this is dangerous, because I think a lot. But even though I do run with a group, we occasionally run out of things to say, or need to concentrate on putting one front in front of the other, and that’s when all the thoughts start. I have had some amazing thoughts and epiphanies over the last 425 miles, and I just wanted a place to write them down.
One of the most incredible thoughts that occurred to me was that I have the discipline and drive to do what I really want to do. Marathon training is intense and time consuming, and demands that you be a slave to your goal. I had shied away from things in the past, thinking that I didn’t have what it took to see a goal through to the end. I realized after a run a few weeks ago that I do have what it takes, and that I can achieve my goals. It sounds cheesy, ok, but this is HUGE for me. That thought has put into motion a third attempt at something I’ve wanted to do for years, but have always screwed up, in one way or another. While this thing shall remain nameless for now (although if you know me, you know what it is), let’s just say that I’ve taken that first step, and have already overcome the first obstacle. And it’s still full-steam ahead.
But I digress. Mostly, this will document my training and my new and increasing sporty goals. Oh, and “Lola” was my nickname in high school. Enjoy!
posted by Lola @ 1:45 PM
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