Week 1 / Day 1

Today was the day; the start of my marathon training. This is my 3rd full marathon so I should know at least in theory what awaits me in the next 18 weeks. If nothing else is certain, one thing is; I'll be kicking myself many, many times for this decision while questioning my sanity at the time I giddily clicked "Register".

Anyhow, I took up morning running some years ago and I'm going to try it at least for the short runs to see how that goes. For today, my plan was to hit the pavement by 6 am so I set my alarm for 5.15 am to give me enough time to wake up before my run. I left my phone in the kitchen last night (on purpose I might add) so that when the alarm goes off I just woudln't be able to just hit snooze and doze off but I would actually have to get up to turn it off. I must have been exceptionally tired as I didn't hear the alarm until it was on its last breath. I suppose it's the knowledge that I *must* go running at least 3 times a week for the next 18 weeks that I didn't feel too excited about today's run. I actually managed to fold a load of laundry and start another load before finally dragging myself out the door.

Fortunately the weather was quite nice; in the 60s and I could actually see the sun and hear the birds. Today's goal was 3.1 miles (5 km). I started out at an easy pace (just under 10min/mi) and I was going to take it easy all the way but after about 5 mins I saw an elderly man coming from the opposite direction, running, of course. I was about to make a right turn and I was secretly hoping that the man would just go straight but that was not to be. Soon after I made the turn I hear him coming behind me and was he going fast. The competitor in me just couldn't let him run past me without putting up a fight and I picked up my pace trying to keep up. After about a mile I just had to hand it to him and admit that I was no match. I did get my revenge, however, when I passed a walker about 1/2 mile before the end of my run. So there.

Overall, it was a good run and I better enjoy these last nice runs before the humidity kicks in.