Marathon Commitment

Commitment can sometimes be a difficult word.

My friends leant on me - heavily - to commit to sign up to the Melbourne marathon for this year. It would have been easy to make excuses - I'll just run the half, I'll see how I feel in a few weeks time, I'm not really ready - but in the end I just did it. Why?

I trust my feelings, and even though they are usually right, they sometimes come in second place ( a nice way of saying that I am sometimes wrong). My feelings are telling me that I am ready for this marathon. My body is tired, pleasantly tired each night. And getting to sleep is easy. I don't really care how well I run either. The fun is the training, not the racing. (Fun might not be the right word here).

Was it easy to commit so something this hard? Yes, it was.

If only life was as easy, as running marathons in the summer time.

Marathon Training

Sometimes, things go right, and sometimes things go wrong.

I always enjoy training for a race. And part of that is the company of the friends that I train with. I will happily get out of bed on a Saturday morning at 6am to join my friends. And I will even do it after little sleep. There is no chance that I would get out of bed early to, say, do the washing and cleaning on a Saturday morning. No chance at all. Maybe I would get out of bed to walk a dog, if I had a dog. But I don't have a dog. I may go to the market early, but that is because I am addicted to the custard donuts and coffee that the little Italian ladies serve to me, but that's about all.

So, in training for the Melbourne marathon this time (no - I haven't sent in my entry yet!), I seem to be able to easily get out of bed. Really easily. I look forward to my long Saturday morning runs. I look forward to the cold morning runs. Two and a half hours - no problem, here I come. I'll be there. Wouldn't miss it.

But then things got complicated - late night, very good company and a few beers. One of those nights where you don't really want to go home. And a long run the next morning planned in advance.

I got out of bed - I was there on time. I ran for two and a half hours, enjoying the run (and my friends' company), and wishing that the time would not pass so quickly. It was hard, but I did it. And enjoyed it.

Running marathons isn't about the race. It's about the friendship and sacrifice you do beforehand.