Item 1 - Run a marathon

He has no idea what's in store for him

I was going to run my first marathon last year. I had been practicing for almost a year prior to that; I had slowly ramped up my training, plugging away with good gains on both distance and time. The marathon I was running was in September. Then three days before my marathon I started to get sick. Up until the day before the event I still thought I could do it, but the sheer amount of crud that I was coughing up told a different story. I dropped out and spent the next few days in bed. It was a crappy end to an utterly crappy September.

So this year I planned to really get a marathon done, come sickness or shin-splints. I maintained a good training regimen and my health has been relatively good all year. Summer hit and the heat meant that I fell off on my distance a little bit, but nothing that I couldn't make up. A little over a month ago I realized that it was do or die time. I signed up for a marathon that was in a nearby town and started making plans.

In the days leading up to the marathon this year a lot of people asked me things along the lines of "Are you sure you can do a whole marathon?" or "How far are you running these days?" My answers were "Of course," and "Around 20 miles," respectively.

Here's my confession: the real answers to those questions were "God, I hope so" and "About 13 miles."

Okay, so saying I fell off a little bit is kind of like saying that "Pacific Rim" was a bit of a disappointment. I got downright lazy. But marathon season is almost over and if I had told people the truth they might have (rightfully) tried to talk me out of it. In my defense, I really wanted to do it (which is, of course, the greatest defense ever.) Also, I'd like to point out that the question "Are you sure you can run a whole marathon?" or any variation thereupon is one of the more belittling questions a person can ask, so maybe just don't do that.

The first 14 miles actually went pretty easily; the scenery was beautiful, I was keeping a good even pace, the terrain was easy but hilly enough to keep it interesting.

And then I hit the trails.

I'm an alright trail runner but I run in minimalist shoes, so I tend to do trails that are mostly dirt. These were gravel covered trails, with very large rocks. I managed to hit every single sharp rock I could over the next 10 miles. Add to this the fact that I bonked around mile 16 and you have a poor first showing for a marathon.

When I finally crossed the finish line I didn't feel the sense of accomplishment that I had envisioned. Mostly I felt sore and tired. And one thought kept occurring to me: I could have done better. And I will, next time.

One final note: the sense of accomplishment did come, but it was a bit later. In one day I doubled my most recent best distance. It wasn't pretty and I wasn't particularly fast, but I finished a goddamn marathon and not everyone can say that.

The very last bit of energy I had