Marathon Mindset
As stated in a previous post, marathon training is absolutely terrible. This is true! I don’t say that to dissuade you or discourage you in any way. I’m just “keepin it ril,” as the kids say. Just painting a picture of what you have to look forward to in the coming months. It all begins with the marathon mindset.
Planting the idea virus
Before you even hit the pavement in your clean, newly purchased shoes, you had a crazy thought. Maybe that thought occurred while watching the Olympics, or maybe something hit you while reading this amazing blog. Whenever or wherever this thought process occurred, it happened, and chances are you will always remember when and where that seed of insanity was planted.
Crazy marathon mindset
That thought is, “Hey, I think I’d like to run a marathon.” This is immediately followed by, “how do I even start marathon training?” And this, my friends, is where I can help.
For me, that very thought came while on a church mission. I was sitting at our kitchen table in Miles City, Montana, eating breakfast. I had my journal out and was going over the previous days’ work. It was then and there that I began to compile a list. Some would call it a bucket list, but since I was only 19 and not really pondering my eminent demise, I simply entitled it, “Things I Want to Do.”
What happened to that list? Well, it was packed away at my parents house in a trunk with all my photo albums, journals and memories from the two years spent in the great state of Montana.
Marathon mindset in action
I revisited this list a few years later. I had just gotten married and was going to go back to school to finish my degree. For some odd reason I thought that it was the perfect time to start marathon training. All the original thoughts of grandeur came rushing back. Thoughts of crossing that finish line in triumphant fashion. Thoughts of how good I would look in my short shorts and running shoes. I have to admit it is kind of exhilarating to think about the great undertaking you are about to endure. Relatively speaking, only a small sliver of the worlds population has ever run a marathon. And now you will join the ranks of those small few.
Pace yourself
Well, wait just a minute big boy you haven’t even begun marathon training, let alone actually run one. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. In the beginning I had a tendency to think more about the finish line than the starting line. That finish line thinking is crucial for overall focus. It should drive you to set the necessary steps and goals to achieve it. Like the old adage states, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
Time to get started
Once you wrap your head around the idea that in 12 weeks, or 18 weeks, or 6 months or whatever, you will have trained for and successfully completed your first marathon and it doesn’t make you want to puke. Then you know you are ready to begin. Set that goal. Stay focused. Let’s get running, one step at a time. We’ll go through it together in future posts, everything you need to know to get you from the mindset of training for a marathon to actually crossing that finish line.
