In the spirit of keeping my Marathon experience as positive as possible – I have n.o.t. let loose with how I REALLY feel about those midweek 6-mile runs. Until Now! 🙂
Marathon Brian was right. I worried too much about those long runs…..when it was you 6-mile run…..YOU who were my real nemesis. 6 miles. It’s not t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e. Not h.o.r.r.i.b.l.e. No, not any ONE of them was. BUT. Ha, That’s the trick. You don’t have to run just ONE. It’s the running 6 miles, day-after-day-after-day. THAT SUCKED! Yea, you heard me 6-milers. YOU SUCKED! There, I said it. Er, and well….I meant it!
Chatting with Brian yesterday — I was explaining to him how dog-tired I feel. He consoled me, but told me that it’s normal. These are the dog days of training, and told me to hang in there. While he was talking, he described how happy he was when he ran his last 6 miler. (LOL! I GET IT!) He said he began counting down from his last ten 6-milers. Hmmmm, it made me go to the schedule this morning, and count. Juuuust how many do I have left?
The answer – 5. WOW! Only 5? D@mn, I LOVE when good surprises sneak up on me. 5. I can endure 5. (pssst Diane — you can endure whatever it takes! just sayin’!)
Standing there, in front of the calendar — I took a summary of all those 6’s. All 26 of them. Whew. Twenty-six individual 6-mile runs. I’m sooo grateful I didn’t count them BEFORE I ran them. As of today, I knocked off another one — which leaves 4 left to go. Of the 22 that are behind me, NONE are circled — which means I didn’t miss one. That’s what the circle means on my schedule. A miss. But, nope, I didn’t blow off any of them. 4 were reduced from 6 miles to 3 miles. I can remember a couple of these. Two were on the treadmill when I was staying overnight in Baltimore. Reminding me how much I hate the treadmill when the miles climb above 3 miles. Eighteen of those 6-milers are complete. 100%. No tarnish. They are in the can, covered with my sweat and tears. Overall, I’m very proud of myself.
Proud.
Why, you ask?
Because each one of those 6-milers was a bear! A personal struggle. A battle of will. With myself.
4 more to go. To Timothy and Back — 4 more times.
Wow — this is coming fast.
Ciao for now……Diane