-John Bingham, on running marathons
My first marathon is just a little over a month away, and so far I've had a pretty good attitude throughout my training. Just take one run at a time- on my longer runs, I break it down even further- take one mile at a time. I never really had a mantra before, but have finally adopted one: "Run for a Reason"... Wish I had thought of this myself, but really just got it off the postcard St. Jude's mailed me when I first registered.
I think about my upcoming marathon and I am a touch more confident than I was 6 months ago. At the start, I was still having problems running for 45 minutes without wanting to die. 6 months later and I think I'm doing so good that I'm pretty sure I'm annoying to all co-workers, friends, family and my entire Facebook network because I'm so consumed with running it's pretty much all I talk about. (But seriously Facebook friends- you run 18 miles and try not to post how awesome you are... not going to happen.)
But here's the thing... don't let me fool you... I'm still nervous as crap. I've trained so much and so hard, but at the end of the day- well, not today thank god, but the end of marathon day- I still have to run for 5 consecutive hours- and that's if I do REALLY well, and don't make any mistakes, get injured, go insane, flag a taxi or hit the dreaded wall and let it destroy me like it does so many others. So as funny as I think Bingham's quote is, I'm also sort of taking it to heart- I've put too much freaking time and effort into my months of training to mess this all up, so I am really focused on taking my time.
But identifying yourself as a runner, sometimes it's difficult to think this way, even though it's the only way a beginner marathoner should be thinking. Running, at the root of it, is an individual sport. Even if you're in a race with thousands of people, you're only racing yourself- and there's a 50/50 shot you're going to either succeed or fail, sometimes based on seconds. And all the runners I know are always thinking in terms of PR: Personal Record. Runners are definitely victims of their minds- because it's not a team sport, in a true sense of the word (can't really rely on the go-to guy to make you go faster if you're not having a good day), runners are left to battle themselves in every race... just a finish line and a struggle with their own worst enemy, themselves.
But in the end, I think I am still novice enough to really believe in Bingham's quote. Plus, I can run all I want, but I hope I'll always be laid-back enough (ahem, lazy enough) to never be disappointed in a run--- any run. At least I got off my freaking couch, right? And I will strive to always be completely impressed with efforts and let you all know about it on Facebook to make myself feel good, no matter how much it pisses you off. So stay tuned friends!
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