Day of the Marathon Training

Day 1 of my marathon training. Today is a rest day, can’t beat that can you a day off on your first day! I have been resting to Jenny, Summer and I came to the beach (Gulf Shores) yesterday. It was a last minute trip and just a lazy one we’ve just been laying on the beach and napping in the room, slept last night with the deck doors open. Tropical storm Claudette was not too far to the east so there was a good breeze blowing and it sure was nice hearing the ocean and having a nice breeze coming in the room. I took a good nap today to, so I have done well on the resting part today. I’m going to get up in the morning and run 4 miles for day two of the program. I guess this is a nice way to kick off the training at the beach, a good twist I guess, a memorable one at least. I can’t help but try to digest why I’m doing this. Why do I want to run 26.2 miles, why? I remember back in San Antonio when “Red” the girl down stairs was training to run one and we would talk about it, I could just sense her passion for it as she talked about it. Then I volunteered to park cars at it and I still remember now, seeing all those folks there that morning getting ready to run. I was drawn to it, why I don’t know I just was. I’ve always been around sports and love to compete. With the running you more or less compete against yourself. You can’t blame it on the ref, your team mates, the crowd etc. It you and what you have inside of you. I guess that is why I’m drawn to running, It shows me what I have inside of me and shows me if I have the discipline and dedication I can accomplish anything. I’ll not lie it is addictive for so many reasons, the sense of accomplish, just the plan feeling you get after a good hard run (I guess that is what they call the runner’s high), the stress relief from it, the health benefits from it. There are so many reasons, but why a marathon, I guess it is all the pieces of the puzzle you have to have to be able to do it. The training, the eating right, the short runs, the long runs, the discipline in all of it like being able to get up at 5 AM and go run. I know it’s going to be hard, unlike my rest day today, but I want it and I’m going to do it and I’m doing it today not tomorrow.