Who laughs when atheists make plans? Is it the one hand clapping guy? I hope he’s laughing his hand off right now because I am registered for two marathons this spring, and I won’t be able to do either of them.
Way back in October, I registered for the Whidbey Island Marathon, thinking I had all the time in the world to train for it. I try to stay in half marathon-ready condition all the time, so I look at marathon training as just three or four long runs spread out over six weeks or so. Now, I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this here before, but I ended up getting sidelined from running quite a bit because of this damn plantar wart from hell, culminating in a staph infection that knocked me out for three weeks straight. An eternity for me! I finally got back on my feet at the end of February, and it was a struggle to go even five miles at that point. Suddenly an April marathon was not looking too likely. I’ve worked my way up to a couple 14 mile runs since then, but the race is this weekend, and I do not want to do something I’m undertrained for, so I’m switching to the half. I’m kind of relieved because it looks like a really hard course, and now Rich and I can just enjoy a much needed weekend away without me being a ball of pre-marathon nerves.
A much less challenging course is the Light at the End of the Tunnel marathon, coming up in June. This is known for being a fast and beautiful gem of a course. Small and very popular, this race fills up as soon as registration opens. I ran this one last September, but I hadn’t really trained for it because I kind of forgot that a September marathon means training in the summer. Whoops! That did not happen. I had a nice enough time doing it but I hadn’t done more than a 14 mile training run, which really isn’t enough, and it showed. I was looking forward to having a rematch with this course in June, and even after all my setbacks, there probably is still time to squeeze in some real training for it. Alas, the day of the race is also my father-in-law’s 80th birthday, and nobody understands the importance of birthdays more than I do, so I’ll be blowing off the race to go celebrate with the family. Right now we know all too well how precious this time with our parents in their golden years is, so no regrets about this one.
So spring is out, and I have no interest in a summer marathon, but I like to do one a year just to keep my hand in. I wish I could do the tunnel again in September but I would run into the same issue with training. It’s just so much easier and more convenient to train when the kids are in school that it doesn’t make sense to try to work it in over the summer. I’m very tempted to register for Portland, because I’m always looking for a reason to go to Gravy visit my friends there, but the timing isn’t that much better than the tunnel race and I really do not want to be undertrained for a full again. I’m still mulling it over, but I think I’ll probably end up doing the Seattle marathon instead. I’ve done the half a few times, and the full once, and either way it’s my very favorite race. The only downside is that it’s right after Thanksgiving/Dash’s birthday which means I may be a little antsy during the celebrating, but I’ll just make an extra zebra cake or two and everything should be fine.
