Pledge

There are 4 weekends until the marathon, and I have formulated a plan.

Weekend Sept 10/11- 30k run.
Weekend Sept 17/18 - no or short run.
Weekend Sept 24/25 - 35k run.
Weekend Oct 1/2 - 15k run.

This coupled with 2 10k runs during the week, a massage session on Friday the 9th and another one around the 23rd.

The race day anxiety has started to creep up on me, I feel it especially when I go past the MCG on the train. I don't need to tell anyone who runs what a massive undertaking this is for me, but for the non runners, to put it in context, the marathon takes a commitment to pain, suffering and mental anguish. You need to commit to dipping into the extremities of the human body's energy stores and pull out every bit of it....just to pit foot in front of foot.

I find the distance of a marathon interesting, it stems from the roman herald
Pheidippides running to Sparta. He ran 240k in 2 days to the battlefield, then ran another 42.2k to athens, where he dropped dead. The point is that the distance has very old origins, and it's particularly interesting that it's just far enough to test the abilities of most runners.

I ran 30k 2 weekends ago then 3 days later another 10k, last year after the marathon I ran a 10k a week after the marathon, but because I had dug so deep on the day, within hours I got flu like symptoms and ended up in bed for 3 days, in my opinion this is a treat example if what distance does to you.

Aside from the physical aspects and the health benefits, the psychological growth that occurs during marathon training is huge. You learn so much about your self, like what it takes to push on no matter the pain you are feeling, what it takes to kick you own ass out the door to clock up more k's all so you can do it again on race day.

Then race day comes and you start to think about what you have done to get here, the race becomes only a small part of the whole endeavor, and really it is, my running has been shaped around race day for the past 8 months at least, running faster and harder in short runs, and then lately slower and longer to get my body used to punishment for long periods of time.

There is more I could have done to prepare, more k's I could have run, I could have eaten better, cross trained more but all these things require commitment, and I'm digging deep in commitment as it is, family, work, now uni, and running are sucking me dry on that front.

On the day I will run, I will cover the distance and I will do it faster than last year, and that's my commitment to running.