So I have signed up for another marathon! I was itching to sign up for another one, and things are so hit or miss in the winter in the mid-west with races so it can become difficult to find a good race sometimes. I know there is one in January that is an indoor marathon where you actually run 96 laps around a track to complete your 26.2! To me, that sounds crazy, but it also sounds a little painful on the joints. They need change.
So I found one that may be just as crazy. A winter trail marathon... that's at night. Well, it starts at 6:20 pm, but in January, that is in the dark my friend. You have till 2 am to finish. I can do a sub 4 road marathon so I am hoping to do a sub 5 trail, but I have a feeling that it is going to strictly depend on weather conditions in the middle of the night in the mid-west, in January...
Sure... why not.
So I figured I should probably start training for it.
I hadn't ran over 10 miles since the Columbus Marathon over 2 months ago. I had been running consistently, but nothing of distance. So I figured I needed to see what I had in me. I came up with a high-speed training plan and figured last weekend that I needed to run a 16 to be on par with any sort of distance. So I said, sure... why not.
I put a few messages out there on facebook on the running groups that I am part of that I was looking for a few running buddies to get together with because I really didn't feel like logging the distance on my own. I got a bite from a guy on one of the groups and he said he was looking to do 10. Another guy chimed in and we decided to meet at 9 pm for a 10 miler.
So after 2 days of very little sleep and a sunday filled with my 7 year olds birthday party, (including a massive amount of Chipotle) I cleaned up, kissed my husband and our warm cozy couch good by, and headed out the door.
I knew I had to get a few more miles in so I showed up at 8:15 and did 4 miles before I met up with my running buddies. When we met up I had 'mentioned' that I had wanted to do 16, but when someone had mentioned 8 (more) my heart would have been perfectly happy. But at the mention of 16, one of the runners decided it would be a good idea to plan to run 12 more... sure.... why not....
So we set out just after 9 and hit the bike trail that headed south into town. Well, just a day or two before we had had some serious rain, and it turned out the trail was flooded. So we jumped off the trail (literally) and onto the road and ended up on the side of a large urban road, not traveled by humans.
It's times like this, where I again love the act of endurance running more and more.
Adventure.
At 10 pm at night, here we were, 3 people who I'd just met, experiencing life together in a way that is out of the ordinary. We were pushing our bodies past limits, our minds past limits, and our comfort zone way past some limits. I forever have the memory of the three of us, trucking along the side of the road less traveled nothing but the open road and the big sky ahead of us laughing and bonding and questioning and striving.
I was exhausted when I went out that evening. Nothing about me wanted to run 16 miles that night. I didn't have water, I didn't have snacks, or music, or daylight, and I kind of had to pee the entire time. By mile 12 I was hurting, by mile 14 my body was aching, and by mile 15 the insides of my legs were on fire.
We ran and ran and ran, and turned an looped and talked. And 2 hours later we ended up back where we started.
But life was better.
Mentally I was now stronger, physically I was stronger (if I wasn't broken tomorrow) and another grand memory was made.
I have ran dozens of 16+ miles runs. It comes with the territory of marathon training. And they are always hard, and there are always mental battles. But there is something about reaching so far beyond your comfort zone that makes the run so much more rewarding and I have learned, time and time again, that the further you reach, the greater you were rewarded.
So try it out this week. Every time you face a decision that would require you to reach out of your comfort zone; that causes you to say 'eeeehhhhh....' and make your face all scrunchy; every time your couch calls your name more then the roads do; turn towards the trial and see what adventure waits for you.
Dream. Inspire. Run.
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