here I go again...

So, it’s been over a year since I completed my first marathon in San Diego, California. After months and months of waking up at the crack of dawn in freezing cold weather, feeling aches and pains in muscles I didn’t even know I had, having my sports bras slice through my body numerous times and losing a few toe nails, I decided I was ready to do it again.

I received an email from Colin and Jim, saying that they were going to be coaching again for the winter season. Colin and Jim, who are crazier than I am because they both just finished the Ironman triathlon in Lake Placid (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run in one day), are in just one word: awesome. I wouldn’t have made it across the finish line if it wasn’t for their encouragement, their support, and for Colin holding his cell phone up to my ear and running beside me while it blasted Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer” during mile 20 of the marathon. So, their email planted a seed in my mind. About 3 days later, I woke up on a Sunday morning and within 2 minutes had talked myself into signing up again.

Now, I haven’t really been running much. Ok, I haven’t been running at all. So this whole endeavor should be interesting. And it seems that a lot of the knowledge I gained the first time around fell out of my head, along with some of my common sense. I say this because yesterday was my first day of training. We were supposed to run 3 miles on our own to get ready for a longer run at the end of the week. I couldn’t wake up early to run before work (which would have been the smart thing to do) so I decided to go after work. In 87 degree heat. With nothing but 2 diet cokes in my system. In really old running shoes that I should have replaced after the last marathon. Through a heavily wooded, isolated trail, by myself.

I think I ran about 1 mile before I started to feel like everything I ate that day was about to come right back up. I started walking because I wanted to find the trail I had planned on running to, just to find out where it is. The trail is called the Glover-Archibold trail that goes from Van Ness to the banks of the Potomac River. I found the unmarked trail and followed it into the woods. The trodden path was narrow and slightly muddy, covered over by dry, fallen leaves. Large tree roots crossed over, jutting out unexpectedly at every other step. I was barely a quarter of a mile in when I decided that it would not be the best idea to run this alone, without a cell phone when it seemed like my body was near dehydration. Defeated, I turned around and walked/ran back to my apartment. I kept trying to motivate myself to keep running; when my iPod started playing Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” I tried to imagine that every time he said “Go on, girl” he was encouraging me to run. Needless to say, it wasn’t very helpful. Even thinking about the fact that Oprah ran her marathon over an hour faster than I ran mine didn’t motivate me.

It’s going to be a loooooong season.