It took me 16 weeks to come realize this, but marathon training is going well.
For 16 full weeks, whenever anyone asked me about the marathon, I’d exhale deeply, dramatically say, “I don’t know!” and then mumble something about being tired.
It’s hard to say that something is going well when you’re tired all the time, sore all the time, hungry all the time, and generally terrified of what you’re doing.
Then one day I realized, wait a minute. I think this is going well. Sure, sure, sure I AM tired all the time, I AM sore all the time and I AM hungry all the time. But I’ve also been handling the training, I’ve finished all of the weekend long runs without injury.
That’s good, right? I suppose, if you’re looking for something that doesn’t involve being tired, sore, and hungry all the time, you shouldn’t sign up for a marathon.
But if you DO sign up for a marathon, a monumental step in the process is accepting that sore, tired, and hungry are your new personality.
The other day I was putting away laundry in the kids’ room. I looked over at Thomas’s bed and it just looked so good. It looked good in a way I’ve never looked at my kids’ beds before. I almost felt hungry for it, like when a server sets a tray of hamburgers on the table next to yours. So I decided to snatch one of those burgers. I lay down. Then I got under the quilt and closed my eyes.
A few minutes later, Mary walked in, looked at me with wide eyes, and walked back out.
“What’s wrong with Mom?” I heard her ask. “She’s in our room laying in Thomas’s bed.”
David responded without missing a beat, “Yeah, she does that a lot these days.”
