How to NOT train for a Marathon

Last year I signed up for a marathon.

I ran two previous half marathons in the two years prior, so I knew I could follow a training plan, and stick to it. I had six months to train. It had been months since I last ran so my first training runs were three, four and five mile runs.

Training was going great, I was staying on track with three runs per week, speed, pace, and a long run, but then my marathon training hit a snag on July 21, the day my daughter was born. That morning while I was out on a run, my wife called to tell me she was in labor. I cut my run short and headed to the hospital.

After that, I didn’t run for over a month.

In the months that followed I only ran occasionally. When had free time I choose extra sleep over logging more miles.

Finally the day before the race arrived. I had already paid for my race bib when I signed up in May. I didn’t want to waste the $50 I spent on an entry fee, but there was no way in hell I could run a full marathon.

I walked into the race expo with my three kids in tow and headed straight to the help desk. I told the lady I was scheduled to run the marathon, but needed to switch to the 5K. With those words I felt like I was handing this lady my dignity and a portion of my manhood. She made a joke about that being quite a setback. I told her I had been a little preoccupied with other more important things in my life. During our conversation, I was holding Maggie in her bucket seat and my two big kids were literally running circles around this lady. At this point she understood and gave a half-hearted apology for her smart ass comment. So 2011 ended up not being my year for a marathon.

Oh well, there’s still a couple of months left in 2012, lets see what happens!?!

Happy Parenting!

-Pete

Related Articles

ON STANDS NOW

From our Sponsors