Marathon Contemplation

6/12/07

I ran my 3 miles today as scheduled.  While I ran, I focused on coming up with my actual marathon plan.  Am I actually going to run a marathon?  Can I do it?  Maybe a marathon IS a little excessive for an overweight 37 year old woman who is not really an athlete to begin with.  I am more like an athlete imposter.  But whenever I try to talk to people about the idea of me running a marathon, they always say, “well, you could run a HALF marathon.”  Something about that really grates on me.  I don’t think I could do a half and get to the end a feel like I had really done something.  Plus, the rest of my life I can’t just rollout with, “yeah, I ran a marathon.”  I have to say “half-marathon” like some sort of pussy. 

So I might as well give up this whole thing if I am only shooting for a half.  If I am not doing a whole one, I am just going to keep up my little jogging schedule an not do any formal runs.

It makes me think about my grandparents, Joe and Josie Huebert.  When my grandfather was a young man, he was paralyzed permanently from the waist down.  He and my grandmother were a young married couple with no children at the time.  They went on to have five children and grandpa owned several businesses and was even the mayor of his town.  Grandma worked as a nursing assistant, full time, with five children.  I wonder if they ever thought, “well, maybe we should just do HALF.”  Like have half the children or only work half the time or own half a business.  Nope, they both did it all they way, balls out.

So I am formulating an “all the way plan.”  That is me, all the way or nothing.