The Marathon - Part 1

Recently, my good friend and fellow Thistle, Janice and I just completed our first marathon.

The little seed of an idea of actually running a marathon planted itself in my brain when I read a really nice profile of Janice in the Portland Business Journal in the Fall of 2005 (way to go Janice – she is such a stud!). Under the “Goals” part of the profile Janice said something to the effect of “my professional goals are always changing as I think it is important to always be improving” (she of course put it much more eloquently than I have). “Oh and I sure would like to do a marathon someday.”

WHAT!?!!! A MARATHON?!!! Actually I already knew this because at one time, when I lived closer to Janice, we often ran together and I will admit she had mentioned the marathon thing one or two times before. But I had always resisted, absolutely sure in my mind that I would never want to do such a crazy thing.

But there I was many years later – more mature and maybe a little wiser or maybe not that wise at all - and that marathon idea brewed.

Brew, brew, brew it did - it brewed while I went on holiday with my mom to Ireland – it brewed when I returned and started a new job – and it especially brewed when that new job entailed seeing Janice every day. Every day I was reminded that the idea, the thought, was just……out…….there.

And then one fateful day I did it – the words just slipped out of my mouth…..

“So Janice are you serious about this marathon thing – cause I think we should do it.”

And not one week later we were registered for the 2006 Portland Marathon.

The training was awesome. I should add we were quickly joined in the marathon quest by Janice’s running partner Mary. (When I say quickly – I don’t think Janice had finished this sentence, “Say Mary have you ever thought about doing a …” and Mary had already registered!)

We did our own thing on the weekdays and then one long run together on Saturday morning. We started January 21 with a slow 7 miler. The idea was to add a mile to the long run every other week until we got up to 20 miles. We would do a 20 once maybe twice and then we hoped, we prayed, that we would be ready for 26.2 long agonizing miles.

Mary and I absolutely embraced it all – we bought books, we read magazines, we consulted web sites, we talked to other runners – we got intense all over this stuff. I won’t say Janice didn’t do a little of this – but I am not sure she embraced the anxiety of this marathon thing as fully as Mary and I did.

But the once a week long run ritual was really incredible. Between the three of us we always had something to talk about. Kids, work, life, vacations, anxiety, books, friends, old friends, new friends, family trouble and family good times….it was a great joy to find out more about these two incredible people. And along the way whether we ran along the waterfront or up in the woods, we watched the seasons slowly change. From freezing waterfalls to the first day that we saw the blooming trilliums. From the starkness of bare leafless trees to the sounds of the young Osprey calling for food.

Sadly in August, Mary developed a nagging pain in her knee after a tough Leif Erickson run. After rest, therapy and many attempts to get back on the road, it became apparent that Mary would not be able to do the marathon in the fall. A sad day for the three marathon amigas.

Janice and I carried forth and as the runs got longer the stories got better. It is hard for me to describe the camaraderie that developed during this training time. These were long runs – at least for me – at distances I had never gone before. Your body is – for lack of better words – freaked out!! But what was great – was that whenever one of us hit a particularly tough moment, there was someone there to tell a story, pass along a little encouragement, offer some water or even tell a joke – and when there was silence – it was an acknowledgement that we were both very tired, weak and sore and unsure if we could get to the run’s end. But it was also an acknowledgement that we were in this together. And when we did finish (and we always did) we could gleefully say “hey that is the longest we have ever run.” I can’t say it enough – this was a really great time for me.

Our worst day though was a 21 miler – which ended up being our longest training run. We had both not eaten well the night before and when we finished we hit the wall – well maybe not the wall – but a wall. It was painful and uncomfortable and in a way that sports had never been like for me before.

To be continued....