The road to 26.2... so far

Since my training actually began about two months ago, I thought I would bring you up to date on what I’ve done so far.

I suppose my training actually began when I was getting ready for the Shamrock Shuffle. Once I made the decision to run the marathon, it was suggested that I sign up for the Shamrock Shuffle 8k. It’s a scaled down version of the marathon, but it has the same start and finish line, and it’s a large race with tens of thousands of participants, like the marathon. I had about two months to get from my three mile point to five miles, and I was able to reach that goal about two weeks before the race.

Running the Shamrock Shuffle was a lot of fun! My friend Natalie and I ran it together, and I was very proud of the fact that I not only finished easily, but was able to chat the entire race. That was something I could NEVER have done while running a year ago. It was the first actual race I had ever run, so there were a lot of new experiences that went along with it. I found that even though I had gotten to the point where I actually enjoyed running, running in a race with that many people through the streets of an amazing city like Chicago was even more of a thrill. It really got me excited for my marathon training!

There are many, many marathon training plans out there, even for first time, non-runners. Many of the plans that I looked at though were only 12, 16, or 18 weeks. I felt that I wanted something longer in order to give me more time to build up not only my endurance, but my confidence. I decided to go with Hal Higdon’s Novice Supreme program. It is actually designed to start the week of the Shamrock Shuffle and end with the Chicago Marathon! I also liked it because it was 30 weeks long, and the longest run in the first week was only three miles. I figured that would be a nice confidence builder after running five miles in the Shuffle.

So, I began my actual marathon training right after the Shamrock Shuffle. It has been easy so far, but I have felt like I was in a holding pattern for the past few weeks. I finally went back up to five miles on my long run last weekend, and this coming weekend it will be 5.5 miles. I finally feel like I’m moving forward again. I’m glad that I chose a plan that started off so low, but I’m glad that the mileage is finally starting to climb again!

It’s been a bit of a challenge at times trying to fit in my runs between work and social commitments, but so far I’ve been able to make it work. I even was able to take one of my runs along U.S. 1 in Key Largo while we were there for a friend’s wedding! The Race to Wrigley 5k also fit nicely into my training schedule, so I can’t really complain when I get to start one of my runs hearing Ernie Banks say, “On your mark, get set, go!”, and end it by running through the concourse of Wrigley Field. :)

Miles this week: 10.5 miles

Weeks of training finished: 9 weeks

Total miles of training: 92 miles

Natalie and I running the Shamrock Shuffle

Getting ready to run the Race to Wrigley