Day 21 (7 miles)

With some embarrassment I write this latest blog entry with sincere honesty.  Back sliding happens.  It happens to the best of well-intentioned practitioners, in whatever that might be, and it happens to the worst of us (finger pointing to self).  My father reminds me that it takes me almost an entire year to get acclimated to any one place.  This was true for Pasadena, and as I have recently moved to Kenmore, Washington in February, it holds true in that I am still acclimating myself to my new environment.  I am a creature of habit and nothing is should be more habitual than exercise, adequate sleep, and proper nutrition.  Thus far I've maintained one of three of these standards.

So as it relates to this blog, which was supposed to be a journal of some sorts about my first marathon, I have to say that I have been far behind on my running schedule and am now completely freaked about about it!  I paid the $129 entrance fee and am signed up, believing that this would keep my feet to the flame.  But in reality, there's a lot more than goes into motivation than just simple economics.  Looking back I should have joined some sort of running club that met on Saturdays to encourage one another.  I still wish I had a running club.  Maybe I'll start my own.  Who knows?

Finding a good routine is like finding that perfect tempo run when you're not doing speedwork but you're also not doing a slow run.  You're in a groove and you're feeling that runner's high, the sort of thing that comes when you lose track of pain and discomfort and everything is effortless.  That's what it's like to get into a good exercise routine, whether you're a morning person and you want to rev up your metabolism for the rest of the day or you exercise at the end of the day to relieve all the stress that built up from work just so you can get a good night's sleep.  Whatever your own personal groove maybe, run with it, then strap on those shoes, get out the house, and run.

I have decided that although I'm super far behind on my running schedule and I have less than a month left of training, I'm still planning on running the marathon.  I could be blissfully ignorant of how hard this is going to be, but oh well.  There you have it.  It is better, in my ignorant opinion, to try something hard and to fail spectacularly than to simply put it off for fear of failure.  I am not a proud person (and I say that with the utmost pride) and I could care less about what I think about myself, though I do care what others think about me.  To fail at this, come race day, would be to admit defeat and have to say to friends that I'm not as cool of a dude as I had hoped everyone had thought I were.  I'm not as much of an inspiration as everyone believed me to be.  I'd like to be that shining beacon of an example for others.  But let's face it, I'm lazy.

So where do I go from here?  Well.  I admit that this isn't going to be pretty.  It's going to be embarrassing.  It's going to be humiliating.  But if I can admit that, maybe I can push it aside and get on with my original goal of actually running this thing.

I ran seven miles at a slow pace then did 90 minutes of hot yoga.  I was exhausted yesterday and my heart when trying to fall asleep, didn't drop below 80 bpm.  I was beat.  I can't imagine what a marathon will do.  My next long run I'm going to bring a water bottle belt and maybe some GU, just like all the yuppie 40-something weekend warriors!  Yeah!