I was recently reading an article that erin337 had posted on her facebook page about the importance of being emotionally ready to run a marathon. Here's a link to the entire article called "Why You Should Fear the Marathon."
In the article, writer Tess Zevenbergen writes:
"Not only is running 42.2 km (26.1 miles) physically and mentally taxing, it requires one to dig deep and pull out of themselves everything they possibly can. The tricky thing is, if you don’t believe you can do it, you probably won’t."
Then she goes on to describe the physical and mental challenges of running a marathon. But it's that line "If you don't believe you can do it, you probably won't" that scares me. How can I convince my head that I really can run a marathon?
It's not that I don't think I have the stamina - I've certainly had my share of long, stressful, physically challenging days and I really can't imagine it being a whole lot more mentally challenging than my first half ironman a few years ago when I started the 21.1 km run knowing I was going to have to limp through the entire thing with an ITB that had locked up on the bike. But I suffered on and finished it, fighting a body that was screaming at me to pack it in for most of the last 3 hours of that seven and a half hour race. And with any luck, my marathon will be shorter, right? :)
I think I can do this. In fact, I pretty sure I can do this.
I'm really looking forward to the day when I can honestly say I KNOW I can do this.
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Here's a funny video of a guy who tells us what he's thinking at various points of his marathon.
1 comment:
giggling over the vid!!!!!!!!! If you can complete a 1/2 Ironman, you can do a marathon, especially after what you went thru to finish. Good luck
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