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Cable Organizers Marathon Chronicles
By Christina | July 24, 2009
Anyone can say they want to run a marathon, but the real test of that desire is to actually commit to running one. Count me in as committed. Better yet, as of today ten other insane like-minded people also committed to run alongside with me in the Miami Marathon this February as part of Team Cable Organizers. Go team!
This is going to be an interesting journey indeed, if judged by today’s initial meeting. Considering that this is a ridiculously long race of 26.2 miles, I left today’s ‘meet and greet’ confident that we have already made significant progress. I would say we are at a solid .2 of the 26.2 miles left to go!
A marathon is an endurance race that is not for the meek. A marathon is the real deal. This is not a race for fakers. You must properly train for a marathon or you will not be able to successfully cross the finish line. My favorite part of our first meeting today, before the official training starts next week, pertained to commitment to training. It took most of the meeting for all of us to be able to commit to a time to train, let alone commit to training.
My teammates hopefully learned a little from me about what to expect with our marathon training and I learned from them as well. For instance, there was much debate over whether Saturday or Sunday morning would be better for our long runs. This was based on the intellectual rationale of whether Friday or Saturday night was more likely to be a going out late night/won’t be able to do anything the next morning, let alone run night. I think I’m getting old because apparently Friday night is the night to beat. Saturday night is apparently not important as it used to be. Good news is, after much deliberation, Team Cable Organizers has decided we will be doing our long runs Friday afternoons before any evening plans are adversely affected.
Everyone is starting out at all different levels of fitness, but none of us are long distance runners. Thankfully, the only requirement for starting our marathon training is that we have to be able to run a half hour without stopping. We can all do that, but not much more. Because of the daunting distance of this race, everyone had opinions into the likelihood of whether we will be able to successfully cross the finish line. The naysayers among us were quite vocal in predicting total, abject failure before we have even run our first mile together as a team. The optimists in the group were, fortunately, hopefully optimistic in our complete ability to be winners. If I had to choose between which two groups I’m going to run alongside come February, you can be sure I will be hauling butt with the people whose mantra is “I think we can, I think we can..”
The best part of training for a marathon with a group is accomplishing this goal together as a team. It is extremely motivating and bonding to be able to run with people who are looking to succeed as much as you are. Team Cable Organizers is also raising money for breast cancer and we hope to raise $5000. By adding such a strong purpose behind our training makes running the race that much more meaningful for all of us.
The start of marathon training is a bit like the start of the race. We are excited about the possibilities and scared of not making it at the same time. But one thing is for sure, the journey to the finish line will be as satisfying as crossing it. My favorite part of today was when one of my teammates stated so matter-of-factly that she was mentally positive that she would be able to run all 26.2 miles, but that she was less confident in her physical abilities to make it happen. I on the other hand, know that with proper training I can physically run this race but, mentally am not so sure. I envy my teammate. When the mind believes, you have all that it takes to achieve. I better start believing.
One of the most insightful questions came almost as an afterthought. Someone wanted to know how you get good at running. The answer is simple. You get good at running by running. Starting next week Team Cable Organizers will be doing a lot of running and together we will all become runners.
Topics: Marathon Training |
