Olympic Fever

In cased you missed it, the Olympic trials for the marathon were held in Los Angeles, CA last Saturday. I would have been clueless had it not been for a colleague who said that they were going to be televised on NBC. As I watched these athletes run their ridiculously stupidly fast 5:00+ min/mi paces (the men's winner, Galen Rupp had an average pace of 5:01 min/mi ... I can't sprint that fast!), I thought about my goal to run a marathon this year.

At some point last year, I wrote that this year's marathon was going to be the Monument's Marathon in Indianapolis on November 5th. However, this will not be a good summer or fall for training. First, there is that little thing called a wedding on June 18. This will be followed by a two-week honeymoon to Belize. There will be no running during the honeymoon, but there will be beaching, snorkeling, caving, and hiking through jungles to see ruins!

Once we return from the honeymoon, I teach a summer class (although it will be online), writing, and preparing for the Fall semester. In September, it looks like I will be out of the country for a couple weeks. There are two marathons in WI in late August and early September -- the Marquette Marathon and the Lake Michigan Marathon (held just south of Milwaukee). The former is extremely small and the latter did not really speak to me. I want to run a marathon and have a good time at the venue, but I don't want to run a marathon simply because it is my only option.

Other options that entered my mind where running the Disney or Houston marathons, which are January 10 and 15, respectively. However, Jody and I have started a tradition where we go to Florida at the beginning of each year to visit family and have a week of relaxation before her busy season and my semester start. The Disney race would be a possibility, but that would be at the tail end of our trip and neither one of us wants to spend a couple nights in Orlando surrounded by the throngs of Disney goers.

All this means that a post-wedding marathon was not likely to happen this year, or technically speaking, early next year. Grrrr! I was surprised at how upset I was to realize this.

Not to be denied, I returned to the calendar.

Could I recover from a marathon two weeks before the wedding?

Jody and I had previously discussed this very scenario. She was crystal clear when she said that she did not want me running a race so close to the wedding date. Her point was that it isn't necessarily the race, it is all the training that leads up to it and we will inevitably need to deal with a surge of last-minute tasks for the wedding. After a 20-mile run, I'm basically comatose for the day. Fair enough.

Still, I thought it was worth asking again (sometimes I am a glutton for punishment). This time, I had in my mind to run the Minneapolis Marathon, which will be held on June 5. Then Jody came home and we talked... Nope. There will be no marathon running in June! Damn!

But there was a compromise. I would be allowed to run a marathon in May, if I could find one ... Well, as it turns out, the Green Bay Marathon is held on May 22!

Less than a day after learning about the race, I booked a hotel room in Green Bay and signed up for the jaunt! (In case you are wondering, the route takes runners through Lambeau Field!)

At first, I was skeptical that I could train for a marathon on such short notice (relatively speaking). This doubt was quickly replaced by a desire to tackle this new challenge. The marathon is about 13 weeks away. Prior to signing up for it, I had already run two 10-mile long runs, so it is not like I am starting from scratch. A few days ago, I mapped out my long-runs and believe I have a solid plan to ensure that I get in at least one 20-mile run. Unlike last year, I cannot afford to skip a week of training or shrug off a long run simply because "the race isn't until October." Nope. Training is now ... and this is exactly what I needed to reinvigorate my running routines.