Ok, so as of the posting of this entry, there are 4 days, 23 Hours, and 3 Minutes until the running of the Amica Newport Marathon. Am I ready? I think I’m as ready as I was two years ago, though probably not any more ready than I was. On the plus side, I started training much earlier in the year & have been running more consistently. I haven’t, however, been as diligent at logging my miles, although I’m sure I’ve done at least the 500 miles that I targeted. I did, by the way, do the Hartford Marathon last year, but because of an injury, didn’t train. Kate and I decided on our way to packet pick-up the day before to just do it. We came in at just about 5 hours. I wouldn’t recommend running a marathon without training. Even my hair hurt and there was a lot of profanity.
I was stressing about this the other day at the gym when I said, “I mean, I can do this for an hour no problem. The question is … Can I do it for four hours?!” At which point Ashley responded, “Four hours?! OMG! I hadn’t really thought about how long it would take you, but I guess I was thinking about an hour & a half!” Ha!
A little perspective … The marathon came to be when the Pheidippides ran from Marathon, Greece to Athens in 490 B.C. to deliver the message “Niki” (Victory) and then collapsed and died.
In 1896, the marathon was run as part of the first modern Olympic Games to commemorate Phieidippides’ run. And for the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the course was extended by 2.2 miles to the current 26.2 miles to cover the distance from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium, allowing a finish in front of the royal viewing box. This is the inspiration for runners and spectators still shouting “God save the queen” at the 24 mile-mark. Why they don’t yell, “God save the runners”, I have no idea.
Twenty-six miles roughly covers the distance from Middletown to South Windsor. In comparison, it’s only about 22 miles from Middletown to Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tail in Madison. So the obvious question is “Why?” It’s a good question and there are as many answers as there are runners (which is roughly 4-percent of the population who will complete a marathon)
The first answer is just because I can. It feels good to set a goal, push your body to the ultimate limits of what is considered sane and obtain success. And the best part about running is, success means very different things to different people. Upon winning one of three consecutive New York City Marathons, Alberto Salazar was offered congratulations and he responded, “don’t congratulate me, the real champions are still out there. I couldn’t run for four hours!”
A lot of celebrities have run marathons. Here’s a brief list of some finishing times …
- Everyone who runs a marathon thinks to themselves, I just want to beat Oprah. At 4:29:15, for the Marine Corps Marathon, I definitely reached that goal.
- Katie Holmes – young, cute, and seemingly fit – must’ve stopped for a pedicure during the NYC Marathon when she came in at 5:29:58.
- Sean Combs showed that P Diddy has got it goin’ on when he completed the NYC Marathon in 4:14:54 and raised $2 Million for children’s charities and NYC schools.
- I have no idea where the Humpy Marathon is run, but Sarah Palin reached the sub-4 goal that many runners have by coming in at 3:59:36.
- Natalie Morales from NBC’s Today Show is gorgeous, has my dream job, and ran a 3:31:02 NYC Marathon. Bitch.
- Lance Armstrong, who has said he enjoys the marathon because “you can’t phone it in, you have to train”, did NYC in 2:59:36 and 2:46:43, respectively.
Other celebrities that I’ve beat at my PR 4:22:46 … Alanis Morissette – NYC – 4:28:45, Miss USA Ali Landry – Boston – 5:41, Mario Lopez – Boston – 5:41:41, Freddie Prinze Jr. – LA – 5:50:49.
I hope to finish. I hope to improve my time. I hope to be able to walk on Monday. I dream of qualifying for Boston. But right now I’m panicking!
