Half A Man

I wasn't satisfied with my weight gain over the winter. It really wasn't that much, but it was enough to make me angry. Desperate times call for desperate measures: I'm running the Flying Pig Marathon.

Well, sorta.

I'm actually running the half marathon.

Normally I'm an all-or-nothing type guy; if I'm going to do something, I'm giving it 100%. But running a full marathon was just out of the question.

For starters, I didn't want to start training in December to run. Although I occasionally run on the machines over at Xavier's Athletic Center, I do so reluctantly and only go about six miles [actually, until I started training, I'm not sure I ever ran more than six miles at a time]. Plus, our friend Angie is training to run a marathon and spent last Saturday doing a long run that lasted four hours.

Four hours. Just to practice. No way I could do that. Especially considering the biggest roadblock to me running the marathon:

I really don't like running.

Sure, if I'm playing a sport where running is just a part of the equation, I'm there. But I get bored easily and spending weeks running long distances [for practice] is not fun. I wouldn't be able to get by with the limited training I'm doing now if it weren't for an mp3 player.

But I'm getting excited about it. The race course is right in our area. In fact, the half marathon runs right in front of our condo. So I'm hoping homefield advantage will come in handy.

So two weeks from tomorrow I'll be up early to do some racin'.

But it's only half-impressive.