Well folks, we did it.We signed up for the 2006 Chicago Marathon.
Well that's a terrifying sentance.
In all honestly I am really excited and so happy that we signed up for the race. I knew that if we didn't sign up and then it sold out we would have been very upset. I thought that training for the marathon last summer was a great way to spend my summer. You are outdoors a lot of the time, you get a GREAT tan and are although you have to miss out on "getting wasted" with your friends on a Saturday night there is no better feeling than finishing a 20 mile run on Sunday morning.
The training is hard though and your life tends to wrap itself around your runs. When you go on vacation your running shoes are in the trunk and you have routes planned around Niagara Falls or NYC or wherever your are visiting. Your brother-in-law comes to town and you have to say, "Hey Jamie, it was great seeing you for 5 minutes but we have to go run 6 miles we'll be back in an hour". When all your friends are going out after a Cubs game you have to regrettfully say, "Thanks but no thanks". But the prize you get at the end. Running that last mile make it all worth it.
This summer will be even tougher than it was last year with these shifts we have at the lab. We are leaning to always having the schedule where we run after work. So if work ends at midnight we run at 1am when we get home. If work ends at 8am we run at 9am when we get home, if work en...well you get the idea. I am of the opinion that when training for the marathon you must be consistant with the rest of your life. I think that the only way for us to do this, this year is to keep the same work schedule/running schedule even if we will be running at odd times during the day. The good news is that the shifts will be ending 8 weeks before the race so we can get back on a normal schedule before the race.
Well here's to a great summer of running! Go Go 26.2.
15 comments:
Yay, to you guys! How exciting. I am hoping my injury heals quickly so that my husband and I can run Chicago again this year. Just reading your post gets me hyped up! Training is a lot of fun (that probably sounds sick to non-runners). And, as you said, the end result is undescribable. Good luck to the both of you!!!
EEP! You've got me all excited, Leah!! :)
Mike and I haven't signed up yet, but that's cause we're running it with TNT this year. And good luck with training at odd hours. There have been a few nights we've ran on the treadmills at 1am...it's an odd sensation with it being so late.
I wonder how many have registered so far for Chicago...
Wow! the word undescribable is simply indescribable to me! U of I grad?
Sorry, just Leah's sarcastic former teacher father. All you runners are my heros (heroes?)
Good luck in Chicago. Wow you guys have a crazy schedule. I guess you don't have kids?
> Wow! the word undescribable is
> simply indescribable
Me fail English? That's unpossible. - Ralph Wiggum
Jeez, I guess I won't be leaving any more comments. I did not know that they would be scrutinized.
nope no kids yet. maybe someday...
and ignore leah's father, i mean really the man lives on a sailboat.
thanks for all the comments guys! Jason and I are way looking forward to the marathon and have started reading Advanced Marathoning by Douglas and Pfitzinger (sp?), it looks tough but totally doable. Run. Sleep. Eat. That's what dad says anyways!.
runner girl -
I wouldn't worry about it, on the internet spelling errors are generally forgiven. They are on this site, anyway (notable exceptions: confusion of there, their, and they're. There words that drive me crazy when people screw up).
Very cool! I am really happy to hear you guys signed up. And to think we might be doing the same training program.
Congrats on taking the plunge and finally living up to the blogs name. I was going to request you change it to Middle Distance Running. ;)
Now we just need to figure out how to meet up. But we have plenty of time for that.
Holy Balls My Word Verification is long....xigvaqei
hahaha middle distance running. that's funny. no really :-)
Yes i think we'll do the 18 week/55 mile pfitz plan. Although we are going to start a bit early (about 4 weeks) to give us plenty of room to repeat weeks if necessary! The book is funny though because he keeps talking about 5:40 or 6 minute miles, wtf is that? What about the 9 minute milers!:-)
I have noticed that all the word verification is long today.
Congratulations, Leah & Jason, on taking the big plunge. I think that signing up for a marathon is an act even braver than running one.
I was going to wait to signup for the big race (due to uncertain work schedule) but your earlier fears of the race selling out made me concerned. So now I'm even closer to taking the plunge myself.
I will be looking for you two out on the path this summer. I work at night and run during the daytime, but perhaps if we all do enough long runs we'll bump into each other eventually.
Good luck to you both!
josh-
hope to see you sign up for the race! I think I heard somewhere that the race will fill up by May or something. Last year it was June I believe (last we signed up and two weeks later it was closed!)
We'll be looking for you on the path.
I am excited for you two! Running a marathon is always an awesome experience and way to go to be commited together. I'm trying to convince Tom to sign up to run his first race - hopefully it will be a blog entry soon. See you at the race.
Oh and a great reward for running the race I have always found is a vacation that way you can run and enjoy the vacation spot without "training"
Well, congratulations for your decision!! You're both now on the way!! And I think it's wonderful you can together prepare the marathon.
I'm sure you will manage your dairy schedule to find the time for running.
Now I'm on the last 3 weeks for my first marathon. I think almost all the work is done for me. I'm not nervous now, maybe the next weeks...
Barn and I are terrified of signing up for chicago. Congrats on doing it.
Mike
whoo hoo - see you there!
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