Squirrel Thoughts

This week, the real madness, aka marathon training, began. It’s about 16 weeks until the Missoula Marathon on July 11, and I am ready to go! I even watched the documentary “Spirit of the Marathon” last weekend to get an extra boost of motivation (I highly recommend it to anyone training for a race, and you can get it via NetFlix.)

I truly hope my marathon insanity doesn’t come to this, but I can’t make any promises.

When I ran the MM last year, it was my first, so my goal was simply to finish. This year, I want to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which means I have to run the 26.2 miles about 15 minutes faster than last time.

That’s about 20 seconds per mile, so I’ll have to train pretty hard to make it happen, and the race itself is going to hurt a lot more, I’m sure. And I’ll probably have more of my toenails turn black and fall off. (I got by with just two last time.) I’ll also have to run more 20-milers before the race, each followed by a frigid plunge into an ice bath, to (somewhat) appease the next day’s soreness. And my stomach will turn into a bottomless pit, never quite satisfied with the amount of food I shove into it.

So, all this basically  means I’m going to have to be that much crazier to pull this off. You probably didn’t think that was possible — fortunately for you, I haven’t even scratched the surface of my insanity on this blog.

But I know that — even though marathon training like having a second exhausting and somewhat painful job — when I cross that finish line after running as hard as I can for three hours and 40 minutes, it will all be worth it.