The typical marathon program consists of pre-training and then 18 focused weeks of training to prepare to run the big 26.2. I plan to go from couch to finish line of the Chicago Marathon in just shy of a month.
Let me be clear: Training (ish) for a marathon in >30 days is total lunacy and in no way endorsed by normal, disciplined athletes. Considering those two adjectives aren't how people probably describe me, I think Plan Madness is an ideal opportunity to leverage my procrastination talents to pull off the ridiculous.
Prior to today (Sept 12, 2010), I was convinced that I wouldn't be running this year's Chicago Marathon. After a summer primed for idyllic training, aka an available daily running buddy, flexible schedule (read: endless hours of nothing), and a supportive running group for long runs, I lacked even a drop of motivation. And, well, I kinda sorta gave up. (Internal rational went something along the lines of "this just isn't my year; I'm ok waiting for another race at another time--I've already done a few marathons, no real NEED to do this one anyway...") Gradually, I was able to talk myself into believing that quitting didn't make me a quitter.
Co-marathoner KJS informed me that despite her lack of running this summer (in her case, totally valid) she was still in. Her response to my reaction cocktail of We lack the time!/I'm too out of shape!/There's just no chance in f-ing hell we can do this!, was, well... we actually have done this. Exactly this. Last year. So, I guess it's the Thing We Do now. Welcome to the Marathon In A Month program for the insane. Let's get started. (Tomorrow.)
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