It is not easy to get ready for a marathon.
I realize that there may be some people who may be talented enough to just run a few times around the block and be ready for it. But not me. It takes a whole lot more. It takes planning to put in the time and the discipline to get up in the morning. It takes stretching and treating pains before they become injuries. My knowledge of human anatomy seems to expand every year when I start putting in more distance as different muscles and tendons take turns to protest.
There is the suffering of dehydration and associated maladies. There is the temporary susceptibility to colds and other diseases as one’s white blood cells are probably elsewhere occupied trying to fix muscle damage.
Then there are the countless hours spent on the road which must be taken from somewhere else. This could cause relationships to suffer. With my work causing me to have meetings with US clients late at night, that often means running a bit later in the morning when it is already hot and when the traffic is bad.
This last week was tough. I play squash with my daughter so we run there, play and then run back. We are doing a zero-to-five-kilometer group again. So I run to the garden where we do it. Then I run-walk with everyone there and stretch and then run back home. So that is why you may notice three runs on one day on my little schedule snippet above. The 31k was fun, but alas my foot started hurting again towards the end.
It is not easy got ready for a marathon.
But I am not complaining. I think it is in stretching ourselves that we discover what we can do. Yesterday was my birthday. I am 46 years old now. None of us get any younger. We have been given limited time here on earth. That is what birthdays remind me of nowadays. I have an eternal destiny already bought and paid for. (See this) But I must make the most of my time here on earth.
It is so fortunate that there is something that I love and that is good for me on so many levels. I am looking forward to the Global Shapers 10k for charity this coming Sunday. Then the Sunday after that there is the Big Chandigarh half Marathon by BigFM. Lot’s of running ahead.
Keep running
Stephan
Running with a Friend 