I think you know I'm a beginner cyclist and swimmer-- and that I think swimming is possibly the hardest sport in the entire world. Probably the only 2 ways to be good at it are to have your parents teach you the front crawl before you become confused by other things like learning to walk or to be Brenton Ford. Check out his franchise of being charming, Australian and giving swim tips here.
So while running is definitely easier than the other 2 sports, I am not a natural born gazelle-like runner, either. Kenyan children could probably overtake me in a matter of seconds. In fact, I really have no natural talent or advantages, other than I suppose not being overweight and maybe having long-ish legs. I work very hard to remain an average runner.
But here's the surprise, even average runners can train themselves to run marathon distance.
I ran farther than I ever have before in my life last weekend, a record 27K (or 17 miles). When we passed the half marathon mark (previously the longest distance I'd ever done), my lovely and amazing pace group let out a big cheer for me (thanks again)!
The epic weekend run was by turns exhilerating and miserable, but I finished it in one piece. And here's my proud (if messy hair, too many layers to battle post-run cold) photo. The waiter at the café who took it was a runner himself who also congratulated my lovely fellow runners and me when we told him it was my longest run to date!
Look for one of these every week as the distances get longer. Yes, this is vain and a waste of paper napkins, but hey, whatever it takes to motivate myself right? And this is possibly just as legit as new parents who put pieces of paper next to their babies giving their age in months and post those on Facebook, right? And like the new parents must think, this will be fun to look back on someday when I become an ultramarthoner. Ha! (Ok, maybe the parents leave out that last part!)
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