Training To Train For A Marathon

A marathon is a grueling test of endurance, athleticism and perseverance. To run 26.2 miles is no small feet (misspelled pun intended). It is far from a normal occurrence and consequently, requires a marathoner, whether a first-timer or not, to train his or her body to go the distance. But here's the thing: not only is a marathon a test of one's running ability but it's also a test of one's mental fortitude. That's what gets many marathon runners. That's what stops them at mile 22 when their body feels like it is on fire, if they can feel it at all. To end the pain and simply give up is all-too alluring and, unless you have mentally trained yourself for that pain, you're most likely going to give in to the allure and quit after having traveled so far and needing to travel not so must further. Most people think that a marathon training regimen is only meant to help build up the strength and endurance necessary to run 26.2 miles. But that thinking is wrong. It misses a key factor necessary to complete any marathon. It misses the mental aspect entirely. For, while active endurance is certainly a key factor that will aid you in getting from the start line to the finish line, without the corresponding mental endurance, 26.2 miles will seem like 126.2 miles. As anyone who has finished a marathon will tell you, patience, a strong will and mental toughness are just as important as the ability to run far distances is in tackling a marathon.

With T,H,E K,I,D and myself set to take on 26.2 miles of Chicago's finest streets in less than 3 months and with 37,000 people on our heels in the New York Marathon in less than 4 months, marathon training has begun around the country. For me, the hardest part of marathon training is not actually doing the long runs on the weekends. No matter how long it would take me - and, if past performance if any indication, running upwards of 15 miles would take up quite a chunk of my morning - I don't doubt that I would be able to complete the double-digit runs required of me were I to follow one of the many marathon training programs available to all runners. It's the discipline and patience that doing these runs would require that gets me every year. I promise myself I'll do an 18-miler in the morning and, as I complete the 7th mile of that run, I'll decide to just end there and enjoy the remaining hours of my weekend. This mental breakdown occurs every weekend until there are none left before the day of the marathon I am training for. And there are many like me who don't take the mental part of marathon training particularly seriously. We take this hubris with us as we pass the starting line and, like whichever of Shakespeare's character whose hubris ultimately led to his downfall, so to it is in our case. Despite having finished each marathon I have begun, I have never been able to run an entire marathon and, on average, have walked probably about two of the last five miles in each. When the pain comes-a calling, my will to continue running is replaced by a strong desire to walk. And, unfortunately, I have conceded to those desires every time. Maybe, if I had strictly followed a marathon training schedule, those walks would not have happened. Maybe not.

While I have acknowledged this second aspect to marathon training every year for the past 5 years and dismissed it out-of-hand, I have promised myself that this year will be different. And while I may have missed New York Road Runners' first marathon tune-up run yesterday, I hope that that will be the last one I miss until I hit the streets of Chicago. Then again, I have had the exact same hopes every year around this time as well. And you know how those turned out!