b) Diet and exercise sensibly to loose weight and get in shape
c) Bury your sorrows in a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby
d) sign up for a marathon
Ok, I realize most of you probably would have picked B (although C does sound like a tempting winner). Alas, if you haven't found out by now, I'm not like most people. I picked D. That's right, I signed up to run in a marathon.
I realize how crazy it all seems well, because it is. But I am very goal driven and up until now, I haven't had a strong enough goal and motivation to push me to my end result. So as I was perusing the company intranet yesterday I saw a notification for early sign ups for the Chicago Marathon on October 11. I started to think about it and thought this could be just the piece of motivation I'm looking for.
I did some research. A lot of people suggest you run regularly for about a year before you try to train for a marathon. There was a lot of good and of course, conflicting advice. In the end, I ignored a lot of the advice (not that I am recommending you do the same), and decided to go for it.
I'm not looking to beat a certain time or even enjoy the run. My goals are to simply survive it and finish it in 6hrs and 30mins before they take down the water and first aid stations. I may not get anywhere close to that goal, but I'm going to do everything I can do try. Bill said he'd call it success and would be proud if I just finished 10K. That may be all I can do, but I'm still shooting for the entire 26.2 miles.
I've got eight months to loose weight, get in shape, and prepare for the race. I'm starting with the "couch to 5K" program where at the end of nine weeks I'll be able to run three miles without stopping. We'll see.
Everyone has to have a dream, right? Here's mine:
Chicago Marathon
October 11, 2009
Bridget finishes the race
