Running – From Beginning to Marathon Training

When I was finishing my time as a student in college, I still hadn’t determined what I wanted to be. Sitting in an office all day didn’t appeal to me – nor does it now and I still don’t know what I want to do. I had serious considerations of joining the military, and in a go-big-or-go-home mentality, I had focused on joining the Marines. This option left many challenges, not the least of which was my horrible physical conditioning. The Marines wanted people who were strong and athletic, I was weak and pathetic.

I started running in the spring of 2008 in order to get up to the required three miles in 28 minutes required for entering Marine boot camp. It’s more than five years later and I have still never hit that goal. When I first started running, I followed this simple eight-week schedule meant to get someone ready for a 5K.

My first run, a 1-minute run, 2-minute walk repeated 6 times had me on the verge of puking shortly after. Just six minutes of running, with plenty of rest in between, had me hovering over the toilet for a half-hour – almost twice the time it took to run. Somehow I managed to continue on this training, occasionally skipping days when I wasn’t feeling well enough to run, or redoing weeks if I didn’t feel ready to move ahead.

That fall I ended up running my first 5K – the Rock ‘n Run 5K. I tried for months to push myself to run faster, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. Eventually, I worked to longer distances in hopes that the endurance would push my short-distance time down. It did a little, but I still couldn’t push my three-mile time below 28:40. And not only was 28:00 the minimum for entering boot camp, they expected you to get the time down to 24:00 once you were enlisted.

This wasn’t the only thing keeping me from joining the armed forces however. Mentally, I was able to memorize the many lists, sayings, rules, etc. required, but I have a tendency to push back against authority. The harder I get pushed, the more I want to push back. This would not exactly fare well in any branch of the military, let alone the Marines. I also had a growing distrust of the government and felt that if I was going to be risking my life on a daily basis, I’d rather do it for something good, not for some corrupt government to make money for oil companies and war-mongering corporations. They all could go fuck themselves.

With no goal in mind, I let up on my running, but a few months later I realized I had grown to enjoy the struggle of putting one foot in front of the other. It’s a real stress-reliever to head out the door from work on my lunch hour and just pound pavement for an hour, taking in the trees and sky, the fresh air. The feeling of freedom, of having the choice of not stopping, to never go back to that shithole where no one will leave you alone for five seconds so you can actually do the work they want you to. But I’ve always returned – usually feeling a lot better. Sometimes it might be a little more than an hour, but I return nonetheless.

I did a few more 5Ks, but they became boring for the most part – just a short race with a bunch of other people that I don’t know. Then I found some more interesting races – a Run for Water 6k where I ran 6k while carrying a gallon of water (or was it two?). That water made running so much harder, especially the second half of the race. I also started running longer distances, including my first 10K, which I flew up to Massachusetts for a 10K that ended on the 50-yard line of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The run was marred with problems from knee pain, ankle pain, chest pain, and my foot going numb. Each mile relieved one problem only to replace it with another and my time was horrible. I’ve only run one other 10K and had the same issue – major calf cramping and foot numbness.

I’ve also competed in a couple obstacle-course races, the first of which was Tough Mudder in 2011 where I dislocated my shoulder a quarter of the way through the race and had to skip a few upper-body obstacles. I’m planning on competing in Tough Mudder again this year and hopefully I’ll have someone to run with that won’t bail on me.

I’m in full-swing marathon training now, trying to get in shape for a December 1^st Space Coast Marathon. I’m up to 13-miles, a rough thirteen miles that are flaring up every injury I’ve acquired over the past few months. Playing soccer twice a week from New Years to Memorial Day has left my knee wrecked. Even with a month off with no running or sports, it wouldn’t heal, so now it’s time to push through the pain and hope I can outlast it and avoid any serious injury until the marathon is over.

I used to take painkillers – Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen – before any race. Now I’m pounding through dry, hoping the pain will warn me of impending injury. There’s only two and a half months to go and thirteen more miles to tack on. Wish me luck.