It has now been 4 days since I hit that "sign-up!" button on the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon website. I'm still not totally convinced that I actually hit that button. I'm pretty sure it was my evil twin, little miss "I can do anything!" I hate her right now. She is so damn irritating. Where did she get that idea?? I've been running off and on since April but the furthest I've run is 6.1 miles. That is half of what I will need to run on May 18, 2008. So, as you can imagine, I'm pretty much terrified of what I have done by signing up for this. I didn't think much about it. Just clicked that damn button. I've had nightmares about it too. Not the actual 13.1 miles, I'm sure those will come soon enough, but the clicking of the button. In the dream, my mouse is the size of a car and little miss I can do anything is jumping up and down on it laughing and saying "this is going to be so much fun!!" I wake up in a cold sweat every time. I understand that this probably makes no sense but screw you. It's my dream so really, it's not supposed to make any sense to you in the first place.
Now, lets go over the pros and cons of this big brilliant plan...guess which list is going to be longer?
Pros:
1. See? I can be positive, I started with the Pros list!!
2. My ass will be so small!
3. I am going to be in incredible shape...or in a hospital bed (sorry, that last bit may be a con)
4. Having a goal will make my weekly runs easier. No longer will I feel like I'm doing all this work for nothing.
5. The race is toward the end of May which means when the pools open, I'll be able to put on a bathing suit with no worries...unless of course I eat 12 pizzas and drink a few gallons of beer in the weeks immediately following the event which I'm here to tell you is highly likely.
6. I've got two small boys and I'm setting a great example, as long as I keep the bitching to this blog and not around their sweet little ears.
7. I already eat fairly healthy and am not tempted by sweets on a regular basis. I'm not trying to be all "look at me! I'm so healthy! I had broccoli for dessert!" That's not it at all. I enjoy getting my drink on and laying my face in a huge plate of nachos as much as the next girl, I'm simply saying that my diet is one thing I wont have to totally alter in the coming months.
8. As of today, I have 7 full months to train. That is only 2 months less than it took me to cook a human being. I think it's possible!
Cons:
1. What if I don't finish?
2. What if I injure myself in the training process?
3. What if my husband isn't at the finish line but in a bar watching ESPN instead?
4. I am going to have to do the majority of my training in the winter months which means a lot of treadmill time. One word: Boring.
5. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting in front of the big screen every single Sunday from noon until 10:00pm, or until I pass out - whichever comes first, watching football, drinking massive amounts of beer and eating junk food. This training is seriously going to interfere with my Sunday's. At least until the Superbowl.
6. What if I don't finish??
Well look at that! My Pros list is longer than my Cons list! Things are looking up already!! So that's it in a nutshell. I've signed up to do something I never, ever thought I'd do but I'm going to do it. I don't care what it takes, I am going to cross that finish line! Recently I read a fantastic book by Dawn Dais and in it she says of first time marathon runners, "...I highly recommend they do something completely out of character, something they never in a million years thought they'd do, something they may fail miserably at. Because sometimes the places where you end up finding your true self are the places you never thought to look." Exactly.
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