What I've learned from my first marathon training (Read 162 times)

I have my first marathon coming up in 4 days.  Tomorrow is my last training run, a 2 miler.u  I just wanted to share a few things I've learned in these 18 weeks:
1. This s*** is hard!  There were. B a few weeks in there where I felt so fatigued, and doubted myself.  Even the short runs seemed torturous, and I no longer enjoyed running.  I understand why it is this way, you need to learn to run through fatigue.  But I started questioning everything.  I'm not sure I will ever do this again, but glad I'll be able to say I did it once.
2.  It is a huge commitment.  Lots of early mornings and 'wasted' Saturdays.
3.  A supportive family helps a lot.  I told my wife early on that I didn't need her to understand why I needed to do this, but I did need her to be understanding that I did need to do it.  I made a promise that I would do my best to not let it take time away from the family, or let it affect my household duties.  Which leads to...
4.  Expect no sympathy. Don't expect to earn any credit for running 20 miles on a Saturday before most of the rest of the house is out of bed.  If your daughter wants to go to IKEA to look at furniture for her new attic space, you go and hobble around IKEA.  I learned this lesson after my last half marathon last Halloween, when I hit a wall around mile 11, struggled through the final 2, walk a mile back to the car, drive an hour home, then limp around town taking the kids trick or treating.
5.  Don't feel letdown when no one looks at you differently after you finish.  I learned this after my first half marathon, and need to remind myself of this going into this race.  I was super proud of myself, for accomplishing something I never thought I was capable of.  People seemed mildly impressed, but life was quickly business as usual.   I'm not sure what I was expecting.  But I felt like a changed person, so people should treat me differently, right?  In actuality, people are too caught up in their own lives to really care about what I've done.  It could also be that people don't even realize exactly what a marathon is, or what it takes to run one.  I know when I ran my first 5k 2 years ago, I told the music director at my church that I couldn't play trumpet at church that day because I was running a 5k. When I went to church the following week, people were coming up to me and congratulating me for running the NY marathon, which happened to be the same day.  I'm not sure how a 5k turned into the NY marathon.
That sums up what I've learned.  I'm sure I'll learn a few more things on Sunday, probably mostly about myself.

You also learn that you are capable of doing so much more than you ever thought possible.  Did you ever think the day would come when you would run 20 miles, or 26? My first cycle of marathon training, I looked ahead at my peak weeks with two 10 mile days, a 20 mile day and assorted shorter runs and thought, "No way.  I can't do that."  But by the time I got there, the 10 miles (one day at marathon pace) were relatively easy days, and though the long runs were really hard for me, I was able to finish them. Second time I started marathon training, it was so much easier, because I knew I could do the 50 mile weeks.

You're correct, I never thought that day would come.  I've never run in my life.  I was overweight, to the point that I had weight loss surgery.  I didn't start running until after I lost weight from surgery, at the age of 44.  Here I am, running a marathon in 4 days.  It is surreal.

I think it comes down to a lot of people not knowing what a marathon is OR the dedication involved in running a marathon. I generally don't tell people what I'm up too for several reasons. The main one is- I'm pretty sure they have no effing clue what I'm talking about. I don't really talk about running with anyone, and DAMN sure don't  mention climbing.

^{Good Luck on Sunday}

^{I am running my 12th marathon on Sunday. 10 years ago, I would have never dreamed this would be possible!}