I recently finished the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and have a newfound appreciation for the human body and ultrarunners (people who run distances longer than a marathon.) But seriously the human body is absolutely incredible! People trash it with shitty food and drink, even drugs, and they don't realize that our body is the culmination of our evolutionary history! We are the perfect machine: sweating, breathing, running, and thinking machines!
My university has a marathon team that trains for the Boston Marathon every year and is guaranteed by John Hancock (who sponsors the race) a certain number of spots for runners. I didn't start out planning for it, but I have been running with the group for a number of weeks now, between 7-10 mile runs twice a week and 2-3 miles of track work once a week, and now I am on track to run the Boston Marathon in April. Its no where near official and I have to stay healthy and uninjured, but at no other time in my life will I be able to run in one of the countries most exciting races with such ease. We have an awesome coach who provides us with food and water, training tips and takes care of paperwork and keeping a relationship with John Hancock and Boston Athletics Association. And we have a team of novice and experienced marathoners all a part of the university community. I have a feeling that I have to take advantage of this opportunity to be able to possibly run one of the most historic marathons in the country.
On Thanksgiving I'll be back in Dallas to run the 8 mile Turkey Trot with my cousin which I'm pretty excited about and then I'll try to find some half marathon to run after the new year if possible. I'm kind of getting into the running thing a little bit backwards of most people who compete in triathlons, where running is what leads them into triathlons, but I had to do it a little different because now I know what my body can be pushed to do and what my mind can be pushed to do. It will also help me on my way to my next goal: a half Ironman next summer. That sounds crazy to most people - 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and then a half marathon. Not most people's idea of fun, but I want to train for and complete one so bad that I research them all the time, think about it all the time and made my academic schedule for next semester conducive to training for it. Sounds insane but I've got people encouraging me to do it. The three separate races I did over the last year in total don't quite add up to the milage of one half-ironman but I still know I can do it, especially if I am able to run a marathon beforehand.
That's my plan right now and I'll probably be tracking my fitness and nutrition along the road to fulfill those goals. Again, there are a ton of steps to take in order to make this possible and keep me healthy and uninjured along the way but my first step is to announce it. By making this public on my blog I hope it holds me a little more accountable for its completion. When I actually get to the half ironman I won't even be an undergrad anymore and might have to change the name of this blog, but this outlet will hopefully help me on this journey. First step complete, now its time to hit the road running and biking and the pool swimming!
