Introductory Remarks as to Why and What

So I am training for a marathon. It may be making me crazy -- I am not entirely sure. But what I AM sure of is that I want to be able to let out the crazy however it occurs to me, and it's not fair to impose that on all my friends.

Thus, I now have this second blog. If you like running, if you like training updates, if you want to hear about how this one time each of my joints hurt for 10 minutes each in quick succession, if you like the occasional pace-related meltdown, if this actually sounds like content to you -- well, you are in. luck. here. And if not -- you are free to read none of this! If it's boring, if it's rubbing you the wrong way, if it's narcissistic and making you feel bad about either yourself or me: move along without guilt or hesitation! This is the university model of bloggership: I don't take attendance, and you only show up if you're interested. Boom. Liberation. I will keep no page stats, and no amount of input from anyone but my silly lonesome will be required.

Thus liberated, I will ramble on. Today: the background.

How I got started

- I sort of started running/jogging when I was about 20.

- I ran jogged very half-assedly more or less until I was about 28, though for a couple years in grad school I was somewhat more consistent with it, as it was a very effective way of relieving the soul-flogging stress of dissertation writing.

- In the fall of 2008, I joined the Y and started going to the gym more frequently than I had been. I got slightly addicted to group fitness classes, and I started running more consistently again.

- In January or February 2009 I saw an ad for an April 5k race (a month before my 30th birthday). I was pretty sure I had run that far continuously before, so I signed up and got my (alarmingly fit) neighbour to run it with me. And I did it, with fairly little anguish! It took me something like 34 minutes, which felt... maybe not fast, but perfectly reasonable.

- Then in August 2009 I ran a 10k race. My specialty training, in addition to just running consistently as I had been but sometimes for longer, was to make sure I could actually run 10k in a practice run, again with said neighbour and this time accompanied by her friend from the triathlon club. I think the practice run took us about and hour and 10 minutes? I felt pretty solid about that. When I ran the race about 10 days later, it took me 1:00.27 (just looked it up), and that felt hot damn amazing. I walked home wearing my medal. [Note: looking back now, I realize how generous both the neighbour and her friend were to me in those previous runs. I just looked up their results from that 10k race? My neighbour ran it in 50:30. And her friend came in 12th; it took him 34:20. Um, right. Oh, addendum -- the neighbour and her friend moved to Ottawa some years ago now, and they got married yesterday!]

- And then... I got ambitious. And more serious. And in April 2010 I returned to the event I'd run a year before, only this time I ran the half marathon. For reals! I didn't die! It took me 1:58.27. This FLOORED me -- I really didn't expect to run it in less than two hours. I was nearly giggling. ... Well, no, when I crossed the finish line I wanted to collapse a bit, and then I considered puking for a couple seconds, and then once I had stretched and was waiting for my ride I got really cold... but once I had showered and we went for brunch, THEN I was giddy and possibly wanted to giggle.

My running history thus far

- Since then I've run lots of races. Some 5ks, including a bunch of very humbling trail 5ks in the spring and fall, some 8ks and 10ks, a couple 10 milers, maybe 10 half marathons (several in the winter and OH GOD they were cold, plus one of them was entirely on sheer ice), one 200-mile 12 person overnight relay, and last year in March I ran a 30k (18mile) race in about 2:50. My typical race times are about 52-54 minutes for a 10k, and 1:54 or so for a half marathon (my PRs are a couple minutes faster for each; this one time I ran a 49:30 10k but that was during the tail end of a crazy thunderstorm and the finish line was the 50 yard line of a 110,000 person football stadium so obviously it was lunacy and probably doesn't count.)

In the meantime

- Also relevant, I think: starting when I joined the Y, over the next 18 months I lost about 70 or 80 pounds. I'm not really sure how much, but at any rate my North American clothing size went from something like 18 or 20 to 8 or 10. Running wasn't the only part of that, but obviously it was not no part of that.

- Finally: I've of course had injuries. Since that first 5k race, only three things have stopped me running. First: I didn't know enough about IT bands, and I ran too hard with hips that were too weak on some downhills, and one of my knees got ANGRY. I found a PT, he told me I couldn't run for two weeks (DAMN), he gave me stretches and strengthening exercises that I still do about every other day, and that got sorted out. Second: I lost six weeks to a completely unrelated double retina semi-emergency surgery, which was as exciting as it sounds (as in, very exciting, but not the good kind), and which meant I spent about two weeks recovering and then four weeks taking VERY long walks until I was allowed to do 'jarring' activities again. Third: two years ago I partially tore my left gastronemius (um, it's in your calf?) while teaching a step aerobics class (yes, I know, shut up), and that took a couple months to get healed, including very pathetic crutches and a bunch more physio.

And then it was now

That about brings us up to speed. It's August 2013. I'm 34. I'm about 10 pounds heavier than the weight I stabilized at in 2010/2011, which is non-optimal but which I'm getting sorted out. And I'm at the beginning of week 6 of a 16-week marathon plan. I have paid money and booked a hotel room, and October 20th, I am supposed to show up heinously early to a bit of downtown Detroit, and run to Canada, and back, and eventually cover 26.2 miles. This is a patently ridiculous idea, but then again I'm not sure any of my previously documented ideas weren't ridiculous either.

So, I'm committed. ... And yet I think it's taking a rather odd toll on my mental state, this marathon business, and thus the urge to report the experience somewhere, namely here. More soon.

[Endnote: the title of this blog is a quote I know from my father, though I'm sure he got it from a movie or a TV show somewhere, sometime. The internet proved alarmingly useless as to its origins. It seemed fitting as a blog title both because my dad was my inspiration to run, and because I think of it fondly but grimly when I'm running in an unfamiliar park and I'm pretty sure I'm confused about my direction by (it's always this way) 90 degrees, but I don't know WHICH 90 degrees, so I don't know whether turning will solve the problem or make it much worse. Luckily, I usually run into someone, or a big road, or both.]