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Over 15 weeks down, less than 3 weeks to go. I’ve been diligent. I’ve stuck to the program. Whatever Pfitz has told me to do, I’ve pretty much done it.
And you know what? I feel pretty good. Over 700 miles into this training cycle and I’m feeling pretty damned good. Not that I was expecting not to, but after logging more miles in the last 4 month than I ever have in any given 4 month stretch, I wasn’t completely sure that my body was going to hold up. But, knock on wood, it has.
I love my training. I love training for the marathon.
But I wonder, am I training for the marathon or am I running the marathon for the training?
***
I started running two and a half years ago in support of my wife. She had signed up for the Hyannis Half-Marathon, and I just couldn’t let her run it alone. I had never run more than 4 or 5 miles at a time and I knew that 13.1 miles was going to be a long distance (especially in the middle of the winter on the Cape).
In this particular case I was training for the event. I knew that I needed to get in shape to be able to complete that distance. Despite not having a plan, I quickly went from running “0” miles per week to 30. With the half-marathon on the horizon, I kept pushing my distance just little bit with each subsequent run until I finally hit the 10 mile mark in a single run.
That’s when something clicked and I went from being someone who ran every now and then to a runner.
Though someday I would like to, I never did end up running the Hyannis Half. What I did take away from that stretch of time though was having a goal race on the calendar helped keep me motivated to get up and run every day. A few weeks before Hyannis, I ran my first 10K. A few months later I finally ran my first half-marathon. I immediately set my sites on a full and signed up for a fall marathon. The following year, 2010, was filled with almost a race per month. With each of these races I found motivation to keep putting in miles even when neither my body nor my mind wanted to.
As exhausting as the training could be, my soul was happy…full.
My training reached a high point last summer when I became hyper-focused on doing well at the Inaugural Smuttynose Marathon in New Hampshire. It was BQ or bust.
Even though my ultimate goal was to run a BQ at Smutty, I look back and wonder, was I training for the marathon? or had I signed up for the marathon so I would train hard?
In the end, it doesn’t really matter, right? The end result is the same. Whether you sign up for an event as motivation or are motivated to do well at an event, the goal is to do the best you can.
This winter I’m back at it. Training with a vengeance – looking to improve on my time at Boston. Still, I’m not sure whether it’s the goal or the training that’s driving me.
Do you train for marathons? Or do you run marathons for the training?
Run Luau Run 
Interesting post Luau. Thinking about it… I do events so that I train… it gives my training a point, a reason. Gives me a reason to train. But I think I enjoy the training more than the actual event!!
It’s the training I enjoy… the training that gives me a buzz and a good feeling. Sure the event (marathon in less than two weeks) will be good and I’ll be ready for it, but the training has been a good journey for me..those long runs, the early morning runs, the runs through all weathers (snow, rain, sun) just because I am doing a marathon on the 10th April.
Thanks Lorn. I have found that the marathon is often a compressed version of the 3 to 4 months of training that came before it.
Wow. Great post. I never really thought about it that way. But, now that you asked, and I’ve thought about it, it appears that I set my big goal race and then train and run lots of shorter and/or more intense races in preparation for the big one. It’s a source of consternation for my coach (I believe), as he gives me specific instructions for the “prep” races, like, “Don’t go out and RACE this one, just get in the distance and stick with pacing plan.” And then at some point (often at the starting gun), that plan goes out the window and I just go balls out to the finish (with the rare exception like this week’s Eastern States).
Looking back on all of it now, it’s funny… I’ve never considered myself a particularly competitive person. But I’ve found that I love RACING! And I know I’m not fast enough to actually be “competitive” so-to-speak in my age group or the actual RACE. But I race against myself. The drive comes from the desire to continue getting better, getting faster and executing a plan going into a race. And when I see results like cracking the top 10% of finisher’s in a race, I get an incredible feeling of satisfaction.
I don’t exactly know where it comes from. Maybe it’s from being “the fat kid” most of my life. I know that when I am pushing myself the hardest I go into what I call the “dark places” in my mind and re-live much of the physical and verbal abuse that I survived and use it as a source of motivation to get me through the pain. I often finish a race or a particularly tough training run a hot mess in a puddle of tears, that quickly turns to elation, or at least satisfaction. My demons conquered. At least for one more day.
So, to answer your question I guess I train to race and race to train. But I run to overcome.
A thoughtful reply as always! Thank you for sharing!
I’m training for the marathon right now but most days I’m just running like my life depends on it.
I am running to complete a Half, not even in a race, just to know I can accomplish it. I don’t know, maybe when i hit the Half mark i might decide to re-evaluate and see if i see a Full happening 🙂
If you want to spice it up a little, you might want to consider doing Rebel Race. It is a really fun mud run with obstacles like a wall climb called the Great Wall of Rebel Race. They have another obstacle called Ninja Turle Tunnels. Its time to relive our childhood- lol. The website is http://www.rebelrace.com
Great post.
Thank Collin!