Ryan Mickle Blogs Here

In January of last year, I ran my first 5K in Orange County. I was never a runner, in fact I had hated running since middle school, when I thought physical education teachers made us run cross country because we had misbehaved. Since high school, I had been a gym rat, lifting weights until I though I was going to puke, experimenting with high-protein diets, and varying ratios of macro nutrients (e.g. carbs, protein, and fats) and calorie intake levels until was emotionally miserable, but could bench press the heaviest dumbbells on the racks. I was constantly dieting, never satisfied, and received little personal satisfaction from the significant time I’d invest in “staying in shape.” When I completed that 5K, however, I felt a new, invigorating rush of accomplishment and healthy state of being. That same afternoon, I thumbed through the flyers that I had been handed at the finish, in search of my next fix. I tend to be very determined, and to set high expectations of myself, so there was only one answer. I was going to run a marathon.

Why run a marathon

The benefits of training for and running a marathon are endless. I challenged three friends to join me in making it the most significant healthy living challenge of our lives. Together we set out to give up alcohol, fast food, binge eating, and anything else that would slow us along out path to the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon’s finish line. Instead of hitting the bars, we’d lose ourselves in conversation during our Saturday morning runs, and hike together on Sundays (Hike Club, named after Fight Club, was born and would soon grow to provide dozens of people with 10-15 mile trail alternatives to nights of red bull vodkas and empty conversation). We made our Saturday runs, which would last for as long as three hours, our quality hang out with good friends time, and we began to look forward to them more than we had ever any bar. We stopped craving unhealthy food and began to really enjoy eating balanced, flavorful, healthy (not fat or carb-free, by the way) food. The result–a complete lifestyle change. We all dropped 30-40 pounds and felt better and stronger than we had ever felt, even in high school and college.

Since then, I have run two marathons (I’ll blog about the exhilarating experience of running a marathon in a future post). I have grown to depend on running as a vital source of mental release–hours I invest throughout my week to enter the meditative state that leads to my clearest, most creative thinking. I never miss a run, because the experience and incredible accomplishment of completing my next race depends on every aspect of my training, and by flaking on a run, I’d only be cheating myself.

How to do it

1. Sign up - the first step to completing a marathon is real commitment, much like the experience of leaving gainful employment and spending your first hundred bucks to start a business on your own. That is when it gets real. Find a run in a city that you’d like to visit (there are marathons almost any time over the course of the year, just about anywhere you’d like to run). Check out Active.com for a list of marathons.

2. Train by the book - there are plenty of training plans out there, and they are really simple. You’ll run fairly short distances during the week, which you can fit in during lunch breaks, and longer ones on weekends. Don’t go overboard; just follow the training plan, especially if you haven’t done too much running in the past. Oftentimes, your muscles strengthen faster than do your bones, increasing your chances of stress fractures and other injuries as you start tacking on extra miles before you’re ready.

3. Do it with friends - the experience of training for and completing a marathon is unforgettable, and worth sharing with friends. Even more importantly, your friends will contribute more to motivating you all the way to the finish line on race day than anything or anyone else. It’s your choice–do you want your friends to be motivating you to enjoy Saturday runs together, or trying to convince you that you can do it hung over, and that you should join them in painting the town red?

4. Make it a lifestyle change - as you invest your time and energy into training your body to run for hours at a time, you’ll find yourself increasingly aware of the impacts of the exercise, food, alcohol, smoking, etc. on your emotional and physical well-being. Listen to your body and eat, drink, and do what gives your body and mind sustainable energy and clarity. Once you shift these perspectives, you’ll enjoy food, drink, and experiences like never before.

5. Get a taste early - the experience of running alongside tens of thousands of others is exhilarating beyond words; it’s a major reason why people do it, and even find themselves running much faster on race day than they ever would have anticipated. Sign up for a 5K, 10K, a half marathon, or even volunteer at a race event just to experience the energy level. You’ll leave glowing, and counting the days until the big race.

6. Give it everything you’ve got - okay, it’s race day. Remind yourself of how hard you’ve worked, and how much you’ve earned that completely satisfied, accomplished feeling that you’ll experience at the finish line. Savor it; it’s the most difficult experiences in life that we often remember with the most delight.

Good luck. I hope to see you out there!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.