New York City Marathon.

Sunday, November 2, 2008.  Not only will I set my clock back one hour for daylight savings time, but I will also run alongside my partner, T, during the 26.2 mile journey through all five boroughs of New York City.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that T’s dad helped arrange for us to have.  Thanks, Mr. S!

Am I ready?  Of course!  If I wasn’t there would be no time now to get myself ready without risking injury.  I have been running between three to five times each week….as an aside, “between three to five” is actually four, right?  But sometimes its 3, other times 4, sometimes 5…so what is a better way of saying that?  OK, I’m digressing…Anywho!

Mostly short distance runs, I have been steadily running and watching my food intake.  This has been my routine since the last major run we made together in Boston over Memorial Day weekend this past year.  Now the time has come, six days away awaits the NYC Marathon…THE marathon that will help prepare us for the following round of runs in Florida this January.

I remember my first marathon which was one year ago.  It was the Marine Corps Marathon here in Washington, DC.

I remember the reason I started training to run marathons – to run alongside T who was psyched to run and steadily training for it.  Sure, I had been running a mile or two, concentrating on weight lifting, spinning, and other exercises.  This decision to run a marathon would ultimately alter the way I would exercise forever.  It was a spontaneous decision with a dialog that probably went along the lines of this:

T: You should run the marathon, too.

Me:  OK, let me register {immediately registers for marathon online]

Me:  OK, I am registered.

T:  Really?

Me:  Really.

T:  OK.

Me:  OK.

(for an actual exchange between the two of us, you would want to ask T for his recollection…that is most often the detailed version rich with details)

And so, four months before the marathon I began to run and we tracked our training as a team, sharing tips and training ups and downs.  I would get the occasional chiding if I didn’t hydrate properly before or eat something after my long runs, an issue that remains constant to this day, as constant as the chiding that follows…but I do know it is for my own good and he is just making sure I am taking care of myself.  Awwww….he loves me!  [giggles and blushes]

OMG…did I just bracket the actions “giggles” and “blushes”…and did I just use OMG??

Anyway…

But the fun part of running together is the encouragement we give one another.  Don’t get me wrong, we also get snippy with one another as well.  That is part of the fun (in retrospect, of course!!) of running together for such a long distance as our bodies begin to ache, our knees especially, and our levels of exhaustion begin to rise.

Then there is the finish line – not pressed for time or speed or anything other than crossing the finish line.  Each of the runs we have done together we have started and ended together.  We run, not to race, but to finish.

The experience of running marathons can be paralleled to relationships.  (here I go…..)

No, seriously.

But I’ll stop there and save this blabbing for another day.  Count your blessings since I had a whole comparison between marathon running and relationships that I highlighted and deleted from this post.  Think of it as an early Kwanzaa present.

New York City Marathon, here we come.