Today “officially” marks the beginning of training for my first full marathon. I’ll be following Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 plan so, as dictated by Hal, today was a rest day. I’ll probably do some stretches tonight but that’s about it.
For my first, I will be running the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 6. The course looks great – we’ll start downtown, head north up and around Lake Park, double back down and cross the Hoan Bridge, continue south along the lake (of course) all the way to College Avenue, then back north to the finish at the Summerfest grounds.
A question I’ve been struggling to answer myself is “why do this?”. While many, many people complete marathons every year and there are plenty of more difficult events out there, it’s still not something I’d consider normal human behavior. It will require a lot of time, energy, work, and a level of dedication that I’m not yet sure I can realistically handle. The payoff of which is I get to spend a Sunday running to Cudahy and back for no good reason.
I think the short, unsatisfying answer to the question is: “to see if I can”. In some ways it just seems like the natural progression – since beginning running in early 2020, I’ve done four half-marathons. And while I don’t think I’m done running half’s, I have for some time had a full on my bucket list. And since I’m not getting any younger, and the training plan isn’t getting any less scary, this year seemed as good as any to try.
To wrap up this post, some goals for the marathon, and the things I’m worried about:
Goals, in order:
- Finish the race
- No walking (exception for getting/drinking water at stations)
- Finish in 4:30 or less
CONCERNS:
- I do a ton of training and race gets cancelled
- I skip out on a bunch of training and have a bad time during the race
- I injure myself and it throws off the training plan (I currently have two ankles that are giving me varying levels of concern on this front)
- I get an injury during the race and can’t finish