I've heard that training is half the battle... I just never thought it to be true

So here I am less than 5 weeks away from Hawaii. 32 days until race day actually. Whew.. that's not so far away, yet it seems like a lifetime!

I understand now that the actual running portion of "running a marathon" is really just a very small piece of a much larger puzzle. I knew getting into this that 42km was a really long way to run. But when this whole thing started, I was thinking, hell- I've got 9 months to train, meh, this will be fun. Well, fun it was.. for the first 7 months. Now, I'm tired, cranky, sore and all I ever do is run. Run run run. All the time. Always running. My training schedule allows for two days off a week, Mondays and Fridays. Since I am taking a course at school, that conveniently falls on a Monday night, I now have only one night a week to call my own. What do I do with this one night you may ask? Well considering that I've been RUNNNING ALL WEEK and tomorrow morning I have to get up early to go for a run... nothing, I come home, fall on my couch and sleep.

I'm also understanding that almost, if not just as important as the running itself, is the mental capacity that long distance running demands. I've faced a number of difficult physical challenges in my life (mostly self induced of course) but I have surcome to the mantra of "It's amazing what your body will do if your mind will let it". Using these words as inspiration and motivation to just keep going when 'it's' getting tough, has allowed me to push my boundaries to new limits. I used to have a running threshold of something like 5km, that was faarrrr enough. Now... well, let's just say the days of 5k runs are long gone, and oh what would I do to have them back... sigh... I got sample taste of what the mental game is going to be like in Hawaii back in September when I ran my half marathon. I remember kilometer 18, and 19, and 19.5 and 19.75 and how hard it was to stay focused when time seemed to be moving so slowly even though I was working so hard.

I guess if a full marathon at 42km, if related to my training, I'm at about kilometer 30. I'm tired, things ache and I'm just thinking to myself "who's idea was this anyway?" and like a kid on his way to the cottage "aren't we there yet???" I realize that this is part of the challenge. I've got to face a variety of obstacles to reach my goal, and this is just one of them.

I picture myself standing at the bottom of a steep hill, and I'm out of breath already, and my legs are weak and tired. But.. you've got to get to the top, the finish is up there and there was no point in starting this if your not going to finish... so... SHIT.. I better get going. And there's nothing else to do but put your head down, keep your arms in close and swing them hard, bend your knees, feel the power through your legs and drive yourself up that hill.

When this is all done, and the marathon is over, I will have looked back on this entire experience and remembered these hard days with pride. The sacrifices I'm making today will be well worth the reward of tomorrow.

I'd like to think that I know what I'm talking about and that I'm going to be prepared for what I will face in Honolulu, but hell, I've never run marathon before, I'm just making it up as I go along.

Happy training everybody.. or not training, or whatever it is that is challenging you today that will keep you happy tomorrow.

S.