Back in “the day” (i.e., over 10 years ago, when I was young and relatively slender) I ran a marathon.  Seriously, I did — the Baltimore Marathon in 2001.  I even finished.  The whole thing.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done.  The training and preparation felt good.  There was a lot of camaraderie amongst myself and the friends I made while training.  I (usually) looked forward to my long weekly training runs and got through the shorter ones without a problem.  I got myself all in shape and was ready for the big day.

And, then, the race came . . . and I hated it.  I hated running the marathon.  I hated everything except for the first few miles.  It did not make me feel good.  It took me 7 hours to finish, and there was a stretch in there where I didn’t think I was going to finish, and I wasn’t sure I was going to survive (that sounds overly dramatic, but unless you’ve actually gone out and run 26.2 miles on a 80 degree day in what is, secretly, the hilliest city in America, don’t judge).

I fell asleep in the car on the way home (Dan was driving), woke up later, ate most of a pizza and slept again for about 12 hours.  When I woke up the next day, I swore to myself that I would NEVER do it again.  And I never have.

But, although I hated it, it was certainly an accomplishment, and it’s kind of a cool thing to have done.  And I know that I DID do it, and that conceivably, I COULD do it again (given proper motivation, which truly does not exist in the known universe).  But, I know that I can go that far, and I know that it didn’t kill me (I wasn’t even injured).  I will keep the promise to myself to never do that again — at least, not all in one day.  But, I was thinking about my exercise routine (which I’ve been out of since before Christmas) and the number of miles I do every week, and something occurred to me.  I could walk, jog, run . . . whatever . . . a marathon’s worth of miles every week without really adding THAT much to what I’m doing right now.

And that seems like it’d be kind of cool.  So, I’m going to try it.

I don’t think it counts as a New Year’s resolution, because it’s January 13th.  But I’m going to start, this week, and I’m going t o see how long I can keep it up.  26.2 miles, every week.

This week will be a challenge, because we’re going out of town later this week, and I have no idea if there will be reasonable walking/jogging areas in the town where we’re going.  But, I started today (just 2 miles) and I’ll see what happens this week.  (I’ll call this week a trial run.)

I’m going to let myself accomplish it in pieces (obviously) and I can do it by any means I choose.  I can walk, chase the kids around the park, jog, walk to the store, walk instead of taking the bus, hike.  Whatever.  I’m not going to be picky, but I’m going to see if I can do it.