Whoda thunk? Me? Train for a Marathon???

I'm making an official announcement...

"I am going to run a marathon."

And I started training for it today.

Okay, well, not officially training for it, but as best as I know how.

I stopped by the local running store yesterday at lunch and talked to the lady behind the counter about running a marathon. First, I have to admit, I really expected her to laugh out loud or at least snicker when I told her I wanted to run a marathon. I even hesitated after I said it waiting for that response. But she just smiled and looked at me like I was absolutely serious. Well, I am.

I asked if they had any marathon training coming up or if she knew of any marathons this coming Spring. She said their marathon training was coming to an end. It started in June and will end in January. She said there are a couple of marathons in January, but not much after that. Darn!

She suggested waiting until the next marathon training course and aim for running a marathon next fall. But this isn't all bad. Because right now, my pace is WAY too slow anyways. At my current speed, it would take me... oh... 7 HOURS to finish the race. And I've heard they have sweepers that come along and pick you up off the street if your pace is too slow. How humiliating! I'm running along, running my heart out, and some bus comes along and says "excuse me ma'am, you're running too slow, you have to get off the road". Okay, well, I'm sure it won't happen exactly like that, but still. I need to get my pace up a bit.

So I talked to her about how to do that and she suggested something that I can't believe I didn't think of! I remember when I first started running, I'd run for 30 seconds then walk for 2-5 minutes til I caught my breath and then repeat. That's exactly what she suggested as a way to get my pace up. Run full out for 30 seconds then run at my regular pace for a couple of minutes until my heart rate comes back down off the ceiling. Then keep doing that until I can go for more than 30 seconds at a time, etc.

I'm so excited!!! That's exactly what I did this morning. And I had so much fun doing it.

I can't believe I'm blogging about having fun running. Me??!! I was almost 300lbs 2 1/2 years ago. If you'd have told me back then that I'd be training for a marathon now, I would have laughed so hard and loud people would be looking at my like I was a crazy woman. It still baffles me how I can actually get out there on the road and run for more than 5 minutes without keeling over and passing out. Really!

I think that's why I'm so smitten with running. Because I can do it. I never would have dreamed that I would be a runner. Not in a million years, much less 3 years. But now that I can run, I just want to run as much as I can.

So step one... increase my pace.

Oh, and you remember how I decided not to look at the scale all this week? I'm really having a hard time with that. The scale is still in the closet. I miss it terribly, though. I don't know how I'm doing without it. Like, am I down or am I up. Do I need to eat less or eat more? I don't know what I'm doing. I feel so out of sync with everything in my life right now. Mr Squarepants is haunting me from the closet. Make him stop!!!

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