Running for over ten hours gives you some time to think about a few things.
Today is the second and last scheduled 20-22 mile long run for my cleveland marathon training program. I did it earlier this week using the first 20 of the birthday run as my long run for this week. Seeing all my running friends hit up the big 20 miles this week just makes me feel happy and proud. I can remember the first time I hit that 20 mile mark. The weeks before the run all I could think about was the 20 mile mark, in short I was scared shitless! The 18 mile run I ran two weeks before felt like it was going to put me in the hospital and I had to push out two more miles. After my first 20 mile run, I felt like the marathon was in my sites! It was a huge hump in my training and I was so proud of completing it.
This years training was no different, the dreaded 20 mile run was in my head the whole time. My first of two 20 mile training runs ended at 18ish... I was a little down about it, but ok with it. The second 20 miles, well thats when I had a break threw.
There will alway be the fear of trying something new. The fear of not completing a goal. The fear of the pain you know is coming. The fear of trying to push yourself and you end up sitting on a park bench wondering why the hell are you doing this anyway. I think you get what I am saying... I think that I always looked at the distance as a chore and I knew when this chore was done I was going to hurt like hell. My mind was telling me why do it again? Why go thru the pain, when I could just stop. When I passed the 20 mile mark on my run I felt proud again, I felt like I did the first time I ran my first 5k. I felt like I pushed thru that mind set that told me I would be only rewarded with pain. Don't get me wrong here my legs were feeling the milage, but I was only thinking about my next goal and getting to feel that proud feeling of completing a distance that I have only been at one time before. As I pushed on to the marathon distance, I knew a new goal of mine was coming close, the 50K mark. The fear was now replaced with a new feeling. The feeling that with every step I am closer to a new achievement. The pain of achy legs was gone, almost like I just started running. I slowly pushed myself past the point were fear and pain ruled and made it to the other side. Ya I know I am clinically crazy, Its just something you have to experience.
I guess the biggest thing I learned on my 10 plus hour run is that, don't fear the distance, its just part of the journey.
Every time you run
you create the quality
of your own experience.
runners often speak of pain
and of course if you want that
you can have all you want
merely by pushing yourself
beyond your limits
every time you run.
it's your choice of whether
to run to punish your self
or to experience your self.
if you choose, with me, the later
then ever run can be joyful.
the key words are,
Take it easy!
create your self as a runner
gradually, patiently, relaxedly.
The Zen of Running
Fred Rohe
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