Finishing a Marathon
At the 32km marker a series of signs were staked into the grass along the course. The first sign read “You’re doing it!”, the next “Only 10 more kms!”, and the next “You’re running a marathon! You ARE a marathon runner!” A tear welled in the corner of my eye, perhaps from the pain in my quads, or the reality of still being 10km from the finish, but more likely because it finally dawned on me that I was indeed running a marathon - an event I’d been looking forward to since running the Half Marathon a year earlier.
Training for a Marathon was relativity easy. Basically you run one long run every week, in addition to running 6-10km 4 times every week, then rinse and repeat for 3 months. As boring as that may sound, once I got into a routine, and found a running partner, I looked forward to running. Here’s the schedule I followed (I know, I know, don’t laugh, it’s from the far from reputable About.com): Basic Marathon Training Schedule for Beginners.
My next goal is to qualify for a Boston Marathon (qualifying time is 3 hours and 10 minutes) and run alongside the 20,000 participants in the Boston next year. I’m not too far off the qualifying time, as I managed to finish this Marathon under 3 hours and 30 minutes - look me up in the 2010 Scotiabank Calgary Marathon Results.
Get out there and run! :)
Good stuff Adam. I have been looking at doing a triathlon sometime in the future but I am a bit intimidated by the swimming. I am hoping to take a couple lessons and try one this summer.
Thanks Steven!
I’m in the same boat - I would like to try a triathlon, but swimming isn’t my strong point. :) Good luck with the triathlon!