On Saturday June 23, 2012 at 10:30 AM, I put another Half Marathon behind me and looked forward to the celebration.
Basically, I had a pass to eat and drink whatever. Jack and the Box Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger, sure go ahead.
Fast forward to today, July 6, 2012, finally back in the gym with my personal trainer, working back to a sane training schedule, and I get an invite from my neice.
She asked that if she signed up for the Seattle Half Marathon in November, will I do the same. With the this year’s Rock and Roll marathon still fresh in my psyche, I thought, “Are you nuts?”
I looked at what it takes.
Money
Yeah, there is the registration fee of $80, but there is more then that, you probably need to buy good shoes and other training gear like water bottles and clothing for this run. Then there are supplies like nutritional supplements that you may need to take during your training to get into shape.
Time
Getting your body ready to run a half marathon requires a commitement of time. There will be a time during your training where you should be hitting 20 miles a week. Getting up and running those miles takes time.
Physical
I’m sure there are those that are already in shape that can run 13 miles right now. I am guessing most can’t. So there is some physical training involved.
Avoiding Injury
You can put in the time and money and may have the commitment to see this through, but it can all come grinding to a halt if you pull your muscle, get sick, or have some ailment like asthma or gout that is so bad that your doctor tells you to stop.
Desire
I feel this is the biggest requirement, you can be physically active, perfect health, have the time to train and can easily afford the race, but if you don’t want to, then you don’t need to. I think this is the biggest reason why less than 2% of the population have run a marathon.
So I need to look into trying committing to another half marathon this year, I hope I have it in me, at the very least though, I have already signed up for Rock n Roll 2013.