What was I thinking?

A few months ago I was introduced to a new term:
Marathoner (adj.) mar-a-thon-er: One who runs marathons.

And it sounded less then appealing if I may be blunt. Someone who VOLUNTARILY gives up their weekends of blissful binge drinking, parties, bars, and bad decisions to wake up early saturday morning and go running. RUNNING! People who essentially build their lives around training for the next marathon.

I have to admit that when I heard my friend say "I could never date a marathoner", I nodded my head in agreement. I didn't think I could date one, let alone be one myself. Mostly because a) I didn't want to train b) I didn't want to train and fail. Although, secretly, in the back of my mind I thought I would like to be able to say "I ran one. I spent months training. I gave up that trip to the bar. I got up at 7:00 every saturday morning. And I have the ass to proove it."

That day has come for me.

I have been thinking about training for a marathon for months now, but have never followed through with it. For starters, I had no idea how to! Let alone how to find a marathon to run! Thank goodness my friend, Susan, has recently become quite the marathoner so I turned to her for advice.

My first statement to her: I am not a runner.

Don't think I am a couch potatoe (although some days I certainly am). I enjoy being active. I enjoy taking classes at the gym, going hiking, salsa dancing, and playing competitive sports. And I certainly miss swimming! But running. Running was something I was "ok" at, but was never the main course of my workout, if you will. I run on the soccer field, or jog 15-30 minutes on the treadmill, or drunkenly run (well, stumble) after my friends at the bar, but those do not a runner make.

Susan gave me a ton of great advice about training and getting involved with other runners in the DMV and suggested I get a girlfriend to join a running club with me for support. (Good call, Susan!)

Enter Marisa. Thank goodness for her! If I didn't have someone to run with I would not be gearing up for my first saturday morning, 9am, 5 mile run with the Arlington Road Runners. I would probably still be debating becoming a marathoner and continued with my routine workouts for the next 6 months before saying "I should have done that running thing".

With all of that being said, Marisa and I are training for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler. I decided to blog about it to chronical my trials and tribulations with running. I hope that this new hobby of mine turns into a real passion.

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."