Marathon Weekly Update

The training begins

So, today began what will be 6 months of running to accomplish the goal I never knew I wanted to accomplish, the San Francisco Marathon. Ok, so it is really the second week, but this was the first week of running with my pace group and feeling like I was really training for something.

It all started about a month ago when I was just getting back into a routine of watching what I eat and working out daily before work. I was on the phone with my friend Libby and found a flyer in my mail from the San Francisco Aids Foundation. They offered a training program for 6 months with a 98% completion rate for their participants. I decided right there and then that I was going to run the SFM.

A week later I attended an informational meeting where I met a ton of great people. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a total nerd. After making my mind up to go forward with the training idea I spent hours reading the SF Aids Foundation website and the website for the SF Marathon. I printed out maps of the course and the elevation gains and losses. At the informational meeting I passed out my maps for others to see - confirming my total nerdiness to all. My info meeting reaffirmed that I had moved to a city that young and fun, and that there were plenty of people out there for me to meet. Being new to the city and consumed by work had taken its toll on my social life (read here - what social life?) and I was ready to take the city by the bay by storm. I anxiously picked spanking new running shoes and trained for the first day of training.

Two weeks ago I attended the orientation kick-off party at a local bar. It was strange to be in a swanky atmosphere at 2pm, without a drink in my hand and without making wisecracks to a group of friends, but I learned about nutrition, injuries, and what to expect from the first day of training. I stuck around for the raffle because who can pass up the opportunity to win 2 tickets to Hawaii. I expected the gathering to be similar to the info meeting - fun people, laughs, easy conversations. I guess when you put hundreds of people together in a room who are all nervous you end up smiling a lot and having awkward interactions. The only "real" conversation that I had ended badly when the person I was talking to essentially called me fat and then lost his train of thought while cruising a nearby hottie. Just call me fat and uninteresting.

Last weekend two hundred participants gathered to begin the program. We each ran 3 miles and were placed into pace groups based on our times. My pace group is Cathy O'Brien (we're all named for famous marathoners) and as Coach Scott spoke to us he explained that since we had such a large group we needed at least one more pace group leader. Apparently whenever my ears hear the need for a volunteer my hand responds by automatically raising and the next thing you know I was a PGL.

Last week I took myself to Sports Basement and bought all the proper accoutrements for running - polypro everything, watch with at least two interval timers, water bottle held in a sexy fanny pack, and the ever necessary Body Glide (more on that another time). Thank god for 20% discounts. On Thursday I flew to LA and spent the day on Friday touring a college campus for work. Never one to skip out on a social opportunity, I stayed for dinner. We ate a an Italian restaurant in Venice Beach where the wine flowed freely and I carbed up with lots of great pasta. I arrived at the airport 1 1/2 hours early for my flight and I decided that this was the best time to figure out how to work my new watch. Low and behold being tipsy and experimenting with pushing buttons really does work. Not only was I able to program my watch, but I taught the other COBs today as well.

As a PGL I have to arrive at 7:45am to get instructions and the map of the course we will be running each Saturday. There were 12 COBs that day so the other PGL and I split up the groups for our run. I kept the run/walk interval and passed on the duties of timing each mile and the entire run to others in my group. We came back from our 4 mile run with smiles on our faces and on pace - two great accomplishments.

As of right now, I'm really glad I took on this challenge - we'll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

posted by Heidi @ 2:55 PM