Running a Marathon: Advice Wanted
Just finished watching Nova: Marathon Challenge on PBS, and I’ve decided to do something stupid exciting. Well maybe two stupid exciting things.
- I’m going to run a marathon before I’m 40.
- I’m going to announce that intention publicly on this blog – mostly as motivation to help me stick with it. I’m not sure which of those two is more
stupidexciting.
The official date of the AT&T 2009 Marathon in Austin hasn’t been decided yet, but this year’s was in February, so that might be a good one to aim for. The 12 previously unprepared and frankly unfit runners in the NOVA program trained for 9 months, and 11 out of 12 started the race – with each of those 11 finishing. So that would potentially give me enough time to train – more than they had anyway.
And February sounds better than any other time in Texas to run a Marathon, so that’s a plus as well. Next fall might be cool enough but would be too early. And summer 2009 I hit 40. So next February is perfect.
Perhaps I’ll do monthly progress updates as well. No wait. This is a way to challenge myself into actually doing this. I will give monthly updates on the blog.
As far as advice – anyone out there gone from “not 100% fit” (as I like to think of myself; trust me there are less flattering ways of describing it) to running a marathon in about the same time frame? Any advice from any runners out there?
I’ll probably Google a bit more about it tonight… and then tomorrow I’ll do what any self respecting sedentary person would do in my situation…
I’ll hit the bookstore. This is Austin. There’s got to be a ton of books for me to read on “How To Train For A Marathon”. I wonder if there’s a Clydesdale edition.
