Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I'm Actually Getting Excited About This!

Yesterday my sister sent me a link to photos of people finishing the Detroit marathon. How cool! There was one particular one of a first-time marathoner stepping over the finish line with her arms in the air and the look on her face was priceless! She wasn't a 25-yr-old ultra-skinny career runner. She was an average 45-yr-old woman. There seemed to be a lot of us 'regular people' in the marathon. I can't wait!! I can DO this!

This is a unique marathon and has plenty along the way to keep the runners (and spectators) amused. There is some form of live music almost every mile along the way. It passes through Corktown - the oldest surviving neighborhood in downtown Detroit (believe me, that's saying something). One leg of the journey is the 'underwater mile' where we will run through the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel and into Canada. The return trip into the USA will be via the Ambassador Bridge. There is a quick spin through Belle Isle (a park on its own small island in the Detroit River) and a jog past the old Tiger Stadium.

I printed up my training calendar yesterday. I purposely started pre-training a couple months early because I've been such a couch potato this winter. The date I actually would have HAD to start pre-training is April 13th in order to start real training on June 29th and be fully prepared for the marathon in October. I will continue in pre-training since I have already started. Once I hit the last scheduled week of it, I will just increase my jogging time a tiny bit every week until marathon training begins. I feel good that I'm a little ahead of schedule because now I don't have to sweat it too much on these ridiculously cold and icy days.

Anybody else out there thinking about trying a marathon (or even a half marathon)? Come on! You can do it, too? It's only 26.2 miles and one way or another it'll all be over in 6.5 hours.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi Karen! thanks for commenting on my blog! i have actually scrapped the marathon idea for a little while. i am struggling with some health issues and i finally decided that i need to just sit down and listen to my body in order to get my health back. when i get strong and healthy again i am gonna do it, though! there is something so romantic about the whole thing. so mind opening, too. :) i never thought i could do it and then i thought, maybe i could! it is amazing how that changes how you look at things! good luck and i will be keeping up with your progress! that isn't too much pressure, is it? :)

Anonymous said...

oh, i almost forgot...i am snowballing and doing my baby steps as we speak. i do appreciate you sending along advice, however unsolicited it might have been. :)

Karen said...

Hey, thanks for stopping by! I hope your health issues are history soon. Maybe next year you can run your marathon to celebrate freedom from debt!

By the way, pressure is EXACTLY what I need.

Ames said...

It's the "only" 26.5 miles and the 6.5 hours that concerns me. Although, your description of the Detroit marathon does sound interesting.

Sis. Julie said...

Glad to see that you are still doing well. Sorry I haven't been by. I've been nursing sick kids and then I got sick so I haven't had a chance to do much blogging or checking of blogs. I'm hoping to be back to it this week before I am down and unable to do anything next weekend.