Jes Reynolds…Your Fitness Coach

For a smile….

In case you weren’t sure, a marathon is 26.2 miles long. Yep, 26.2 horrendous miles. Unless you’re nut’s that is, then you might actually replace the word horrendous with enjoyable. If you can imagine running as far and as long as you possibly could and then adding 5 miles until the finish line, that would describe my experience when running a marathon. Sure, the first 10 miles were great, heck even the first 13 miles felt like a breeze, but once you hit the wall with 7 miles to go, it gets ugly!

It was the hottest Memorial day on record, but I didn’t care, I was running a marathon! I hardly noticed the salt that had crystallized on numerous parts of my body, the dry mouth, the fact that I wasn’t sweating in 90+ temperatures, or the runners sitting on the side of the road who had dropped out due to heat exhaustion. I was so delirious it didn’t even bother me to see a man being carted away on a stretcher out of the corner of my eye (that’s right, he was placed in an ambulance and taken to the hospital!).

It wasn’t until mile 19 that it really hit me, I still had 7+ miles to go! As the ‘race’ went on, I began hoping I had read the mile marker incorrectly (every time I passed one). Unfortunately, some of my cognitive abilities remained in tact during the race and yes, each time I approached one they did seem to be in numerical order. Even at mile 22 (yes 22), I still had over 4 miles left. FOUR MILES!!! Seems like a long ways to go, haven’t I been running ALL MORNING? (yes you have been, that’s what a marathon is). Does this so called ‘running club’ know what they are doing…did they mark this race out correctly?? These were the thoughts rolling through my mind as my knees began to ache, my hips felt raw, and I began to wonder if the heat had burned holes through the bottom of my shoes.

All I could do was stare straight ahead, I heard nothing, every step burned, every breath ached….But then I saw the finish. Crowds of people began cheering me on, and the promise of finally being able to complete this stupid thing. And then I did it, I crossed the finish line! I couldn’t believe it, I had finished a marathon!

The glory lasted for days, I had finished a marathon, HOORAY!!! I knew then that I would always run marathons, that I loved running. It was decided, for the rest of my life I would hit the open road, do a long run every weekend and have no one to answer to, loving every minute of it.

WRONG! How many marathons have I completed….ONE. And I’ll never do another one unless someone pays me. After the ‘afterglow’ wore off, running another marathon didn’t seem as desirable. Actually it doesn’t sound like any fun at all to me. But, if you’re interested in running a marathon and feeling that sense of accomplishment (I won’t lie, it feels cool to have done one). We’ll be reviewing the ins and outs of marathon training (for beginners…obviously!) over the next few posts.