Why a marathon?

Ok, so I'm really on a roll today with 2 blog entries before 1:30!

The other thing I know is going to come up as this big, hairy, crazy goal of running a marathon becomes more public is, "Why would you want to do THAT?"

The honest answer is, "I don't know exactly."

But I do know this. There has always been something about the marathon.

I remember a neighbor's dad (Mr. Carling) from when I was growing up. He was a runner. There is a local marathon held on the 24th of July (aka Pioneer Day) here in Salt Lake and Mr. Carling ran THAT. I remember people talking about it in hushed tones. :) He also made really good home made ice cream and in my head I seem to remember something about him and Fernwood's Ice Cream parlor and bubble gum ice cream - but that's not really relevant here.

I also remember hearing about people running the St. George marathon when I was growing up.

I always had a sense of "if I was a runner, I would want to run a MARATHON."

Then, in the late 90's, there was a magazine called "Walking" and it had an edition that was devoted to WALKING a marathon. I tore the training program out and stuck it on my fridge. And even took some slack about it from my husband's friend Dave (a "real" runner, right down to the wiry build!). It stayed up on my fridge right up until I (surprise!) got pregnant and realized that I was NEVER going to have time for that sort of thing and besides, with my dialup modem and AOL I had bookmarked the training program anyway.

What's that? You've never heard of "Walking"? That's because it - and that particular training program - no longer exist. It's a shame, too. It was a great magazine.

Thoughts of much besides new motherhood and teaching were scarce from 1998-2003. And then Ginger (a friend and hero with her huge and lasting transformation of her body) mentioned that she had read "Courage to Start" (or maybe it was "No Need for Speed") by John Bingham and that she was thinking about starting running. I went straight to the library and checked them out. Within days I was being fit for shoes at my LRS (local running store) and trying to figure out how to become a runner.

Once I learned that slow and steady got it done, I was hooked.

Doing a marathon became a matter of "when" not "if" or "why".

So, I've been thinking about my reply to "why would you want to do THAT?" and I think the best approach will be to answer a question with a question. "Why do YOU like cottage cheese?"