"Training"

We all have those really ambitious goals at the beginning of the year (some people call these "New Year's Resolutions") such as reading more books, losing weight, traveling more, eating healthier, becoming more organized, etc. When you get down to it, the main objective of these resolutions/goals is to improve upon our current lives and we give ourselves an entire year to accomplish these feats.

My main goal in 2011 is to run a marathon. I am a huge fan of The Biggest Loser, as is my husband, and I always say to myself as I watch the final 4 contestants run their marathon, "if they can do it, so can I." Mind you, I don't absolutely love running. I don't hate it either, but if I had to choose a favorite exercise, it would definitely not be running. Maybe dancing or pilates.

In my quest to make my goal a reality, I have signed up for 4 races this year so far, and successfully completed 3 of them (a 10k, a 4-mile run and an 8k). My 4th race of the year is tomorrow and it is going to be my longest hardest race EVER. I am going to complete a 1/2 marathon tomorrow. People, this is 13 miles of pounding the pavement. This shouldn't be a problem with my extensive training right? Well, there in lies the problem. My "training" has been a little non-traditional to say the least. I'm lucky if I prioritize enough time to run for an hour a few times a week with Grace in the jogging stroller. The most I have run at one time this year is 8 miles. And that was once. The rest of the time, I average 3 to 5 miles. I know that is still pretty good, but we are talking about running 13 straight miles tomorrow. I wish I could say that the reason I've been absent from blogging has been that I've been training for my 1/2 marathon, but that would not be true. What can I say, life just gets in the way.

I don't care how long it takes me. I don't care if I have to walk a little bit. As long as I cross that finish line, I will claim it as a success. My good friend Cho is running it with me. She has actually trained for this, so maybe she'll be all the motivation I need to keep up with her.

And if I totally don't collapse after the race and my legs haven't fallen off, maybe just maybe I'll actually follow a training program for the 1/2 marathon (or full marathon!) in October. I'll let you know how it goes.