The Marathon!
That elusive and ever present item that has yet to be checked off many a middle aged ambitious bucket list. For me, running a marathon ranks up there with such ambitious endeavors like skydiving, running with the bulls in Pamplona, and going to India for a spiritual awakening. This is the year! No, really! This is the year. Not only am I training for a marathon. I’m training for the Athens Marathon. The Authentic. The original. The one where Pheidippides died after delivering the message: NIKE! VICTORY! That is what I am signing up for.
Why?
Why would I do such a stupid thing? Nobody likes running! Nobody! I’m running for a noble cause. Not for any charity or world peace. My cause is a totally selfish one. My cause is to hang out with my brother in law Julio and sister in law Meritxell for the weekend in Athens under the guise of a marathon. Rosalia will tag along to work on her Greek language skills and do some shopping. We’ve been talking about a city break in Athens for the past couple of years and something always comes up or we can’t find a date that works. I figured since Julio and Meritxell run marathons and I would like to run my first marathon, we can make this work. In the final analysis, I’m sacrificing eight months of free time and my body just to hang out in Athens for a few days. That’s the kind of friend and team player that I am! The risks outweigh the rewards. There is no reward for running a marathon beyond a shiny tin medal and a social media post. To be honest, if you run a marathon and don’t post it to social media, did you really run a marathon?
WHAAAAT?!?!?!
After making the commitment to run the Athens Marathon (after a few glasses of wine), I went to work planning. What did I commit to? As I found out, not all 26.2 miles (42km) are created equally. After reading this article on Medium laying out a training plan for THIS particular marathon, I didn’t get too spooked until I came upon this:
The Athens Authentic Marathon has one of the highest elevation gains of any major international marathon, with a total of 332m (1,089ft) elevation gain across its 26.2 miles. Most of that elevation gain comes in a brutal 8-mile section that begins about halfway through the race and continues relentlessly until you pass kilometre marker 31 (about 19.5 miles in).
I forwarded along this to Julio and he responded that this is a pretty high elevation gain for a marathon. Most people will tell you that a marathon is half way done after mile 20. Therefore, I will need to keep my soul intact through that brutal climb to mile 20 and it’s all downhill from there! I’ll let gravity do its job after the climb. That is my strategy!
How?
I’m going to use just will-power and try not to beat my body down. I’m not trying to be the best at exercise. The goal is to enjoy a city break in Athens with my peeps. The marathon is just a conduit to that. I’m following a totally unorthodox training plan where I incorporate my love of drinking into my plan. On my Garmin Connect app, I have Coach Greg telling me what to do and when and I listen to his advice and work the steps. He sets the pace and provides the structure of my training plan. In order to train for a marathon, I will need to learn how to crawl, before I can learn to walk, and then learn to run. With that said, my sterps look something like this:
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5K – By end of April
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10K – By June
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Half Marathon – By August
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Athens Marathon – November
Last Sunday, I ran a full 3 km without stopping. Where did I run to? I ran to the Tot 1 Euro Bar and drank 3 baby San Miguels. One for each kilometer. I felt accomplished with my new personal record for my effort and felt I need instant gratification for such a milestone in my journey. It was also pretty interesting seeing the reaction from the bartender after each subsequent beer I ordered. From a cursory scan of the clientele inside the bar, I have concluded that they don’t get too many athletic types in there and are missing a key demographic to increase sales.
In Conclusion
All kidding aside, running a marathon requires discipline. I imagine a lot of people put off marathon running for decades and when they finally get serious about it, the marathon is a bridge too far for some people. I don’t know if there are many first time marathon runners in my age group. Most first timers check this off their list prior to turning 40. I’m only a few weeks into this and I’m still committed. I installed a countdown widget on my Mac to constantly remind me of what I got myself into.
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Is running a marathon going to define me as a person? Absolutely Not!
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Will I feel accomplished? I’ll have to wait and see.
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Will I run a second one? I need to get past the first one.
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Is this the dumbest thing I’ve every committed to? Ask any married person after a few years of marriage.
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