Ann's Running Commentary

It’s here. Marathon week is finally here. Yippee! This one, the Baltimore Marathon, will make it an even dozen. Thinking about the number of marathons under my belt, the seasons of training and the weeks leading up to marathons past, I have made an interesting discovery about myself. I don’t get nervous about the marathon. I haven’t since the very first one. I get excited, anxious for the day to be here already and to get going. But it isn’t the marathon I get excited about.

It is the day after. It is knowing that I don’t have to get up every weekend and trudge through the long run. I can run three miles or ten miles and know that it isn’t going to affect my training. I can go hiking and trail running without worrying about breaking an ankle and ruining my marathon.

More than that though I look forward to the day after the marathon, when I get to go back to the type of training I really love – the short fast runs, jump roping, weight lifting, spinning and clubbing cardio workouts that are more fun than work.

I train for two marathons a year. That is thirty two weeks a year of living strictly by the training schedule. The other twenty weeks of the year I train for fun. I still push myself. Most of the time, I push myself harder than I do during marathon training, but not because it is on the schedule. I do it because I like the results. But mostly, I do it because it is what makes the rest of the year worth it. It is truly fun.

Some have suggested that I would enjoy this type of training all year long, that I should give up the marathon training, but I don’t think so. Part of what makes the crazy hard ten weeks between marathon training fun is going into them tired and bored and ready for something different but going into them marathon fit. Going into the ten weeks with a confidence that few know better than a marathon runner. A confidence that my body can survive a marathon.

So, no, I am not nervous. I realize there is a marathon on Saturday. I realize I have to get through the 26.2 miles and that they might even be painful miles, but I also know that there is a reward at the end. A reward that lasts ten weeks. That is what I am focused on this week as the marathon approaches. I have looked at the course. I have developed a strategy. I will run two more easy runs before the marathon begins, but really, what more can I do? I am ready. Ready to run, ready to be done with it and ready to move on to the next thing.

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