Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Philadelphia Marathon In Five Weeks. Yeah, Why Not?

Yesterday I decided I was going to run in the Philadelphia Marathon. A little research advised me I should run for a year, and then adhere to a strict 18-week training regiment before attempting to run a 26.2 mile marathon. I have 39 days. This should be fun.

I wouldn't say I'm the most unhealthy person in the world. I played some soccer in high school. There was a time when I rode my bike a couple miles to work. I was on a softball team a couple years back. But I certainly don't regularly exercise. I mean, who does? It's like flossing.

At first I considered the half-marathon, which true to it's name, is only 13.1 miles. This is whats recommended for first timers. But I figure if I'm gonna do this, I might as well do it right. Oh, and also, the mental image of me jogging with a bunch of seniors citizens didn't look .

Registration is over a hundred dollars, at least this late it is. It's not like I'm poor (actually, it's exactly like that), but paying that much to run the streets of Philadelphia seems a little overpriced. I could run in Philadelphia any day. Granted I'd probably get ran over, stabbed, and/or shot. But whose to say that's not gonna happen at the marathon.

With a little help from Google Maps I've selected a nice jogging route thats just a little under two and a half miles. I figure that's a good starting point. Eventually I'll kick it up, maybe run run two laps for about five miles.

Seems easy enough. I can do this. I don't even know what I'd do with the other 13 weeks.

No comments: