Training for a marathon is a journey. A very different one for each and every one of us who decide to register for 26.2 miles. My journey has been full of ups and downs as I already wrote about. The Lakefront Marathon is six weeks away. That’s not far at all. I registered in February. That seems like a million years ago.
I had some simple goals this time around like have fun and don’t get injured. I am very excited that I have not sustained any injuries or visited an orthopedic doctor in a long time. This is big people. What has happened is I am not having fun. I’m getting increasingly worried that marathon training is going to make me hate running. And while I know a lot of the shitty runs I had this summer were weather related, but that doesn’t change how demoralizing they were.
I do not doubt my ability one bit to finish the Lakefront Marathon, what I doubt is my desire to do it. And there is no way I will be able to run 26.2 miles on October 7th if I don’t want to be doing it. Two Saturday’s ago I ran through Madison on my way to another half marathon finish. Of course I somehow managed to get the summer plague (or just a cold) the day before the race and wasn’t able to have the race I wanted, I did still finish. I remembered how much I enjoy racing the half marathon.
This weekend is my first scheduled 20 miler and I will not be running it.
My marathon journey has come to an end.
I will not be running the Lakefront Marathon this October.
And I’m okay with that.
The tough thing I’ve found about marathon training is that your heart has to be in it 100%. I’ve had some down weeks as well.
I’m happy for you that you made the best decision for yourself. The worst thing you can do is force it and end up hating something you love so much.
I often think back to my spring marathon and wonder if I should have done what you just decided here. There’s a lot I regret from it. I think you’re being proactive by deciding now, before going through with longer training miles. If it’s not fun, it’s not worth the energy.
Maybe we can organize a really great cheer section for our friends running it?
Definitely. I already promised Sara I would be there for her all weekend.
[...] not quitting running or anything crazy like that. I’m just not running the marathon. I’m switching things up a bit. I’ve been talking about and thinking about getting back [...]
[...] was a race I was supposed to run. I was supposed to attack 26.2 again. Several weeks ago I decided not to run it. I was going to run it with my totally amazing friend Sara. When I decided not to run it I promised [...]