Finding Momentum

My buddies Matt, Josiah, Tony and I had been talking about running a marathon ever since late April. Matt and Josiah are distance heroes, and Tony’s the only one out of all of us who’s actually run a marathon.

“I’m in if you’re in,” one of us would say.

“I’m about 60% sure I’m in,” somebody else would chime in.”But if you’re running…”

I decided to settle it for all of us. “I’m in.” And that settled it. We were going to run a whole, freakin’ marathon.

 — 

It was only around last year I acquired the goal to run a marathon. I had filed it under “Things I’d Like To Do Before I Die” — that is to say, Things That Are Highly Good But Kind of Far-Fetched. Only around last year because in years past I would have laughed it off as impossible. But then again last year I was looking for impossible things to do, if only for the kick of compiling them into a list.

Sure, in high school I ran track for four years and cross country for three (fully enjoying its ironic, sadistic valor). And I’d been somewhat regular in my running in college (running usually when A: disgusted at my gut or B: stressed out like crazy or C: a lot on my mind), but I’d never imagined myself doing this sort of a feat.

Marathons are cloaked in a lot of mystique: there’s that whole metaphor of the human struggle, the idea of it being about sheer survival. There’s the promise of triumph at the end over a particularly impossible task. And never mind that legend goes that the first guy that ran it keeled over and died.

But ever since the Santa Cruz Half-Marathon we ran, I’ve been feeling like this is a reachable goal. Running 26.2 miles isn’t too hard. You just have to get past the first mile, and the second, then the third…

So for the past six weeks or so, Tony, Matt, Josiah and I have been training for the San Francisco Marathon. We’re all over the Bay Area (Josiah’s in the Peninsula, I’m in the South Bay, Matt’s in the East Bay and Tony’s in Berkeley) and we train separately. But we hope to run this sucker together on August 3rd.

Training’s been good but tough. I’m currently running 30-40 miles a week (five days running, 2 days rest). Over the course of a week, I’ll do a long run on the weekend, rest, three medium runs, rest, and a short run (in that order). It’s kind of hard to roll yourself out of bed at 7:30AM in the morning and get yourself psyched for a run, but I guess it’s part of the package.

We’d love to have some folks (you!) involved in this endeavour:

• If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, I’ve been posting training updates once in awhile, so feel free to follow along if you’d like.
• If you’d like to run with us (or even for either of both half-marathons, which both take place the same day), do let me know!
• Finally, we four runners are going to be running this for a good cause. I’ve been thinking of running to raise money for the International Justice Mission or another human-rights organization, but I’m still waiting on word from the other guys. Watch this space for more details, or let me know if you know any good organizations to fundraise for.

Related posts

1. Santa Cruz Half-Marathon My friend Lily and I have been talking of running...
2. On the SF Marathon: A thank you, some more thoughts, and photos to top it off Before we begin, let me say THANK YOU to all...
3. One day before the race I'm feeling a mix of anticipation and excitement ("wow! a...
4. Running for IJM Part III: How you can help Support us as we run for the IJM! I've...