Because of course you should eat dinner with Mickey after you’ve run your first marathon:)

OK, so the title of this little essay (wait, I just pictured Prairie Dawn from Sesame Street in my head saying “oh welcome, oh welcome, to our little play . . ” and yes, I’m sure I’m dating myself there) wait, where was I? Because I just went from that to REM when they were on Sesame Street doing “Shiny Happy People” . . . Good Lord, ADD much, Jen??

Let’s start again – It was a big decision for me to decide to train for my first full. And my second. And my third. And now, when I’m on the cusp of possibly hanging up the full distance permanently, I am thinking back to why I decided to run a full in the first place and what made me think I was ready. So here goes:

The Top Five Ways I Knew I Was Ready To Run A Full Marathon

1. I had already run 5 half marathons and had stayed strong and injury free in my training

Not that those who are injured are OUT of the full, but if you’ve run a half and had lots of training set backs during training I think you need to consider if your body is really ready for a full. For me, the fact that I knew I could sustain the mileage without much mechanical failure was a good sign I was ready for the next challenge.

2. Running “only” 13.1 miles didn’t seem like a challenge anymore

yes, it’s crazy talk. Especially since, as I’ve mentioned many times before, it took me 3 months to run 1 mile, but I had done training plans up to 10 miles enough times. I was longing to push myself and see what my body could do.

3. My Friends Were Running A Full

Yes, this falls under the category of “if your friends jumped off a cliff would you?” Evidently yes, I would.;) My running friends who had done it and lived to tell the tale were an invaluable source of advice and support and my friends who were ALSO training for their first full became my tribe. Only they understood why, on any given double digit mile Saturday, I was forced to sit on the couch staring at HGTV eating carbs while my family enjoyed a gorgeous day. We were in it together – do NOT underestimate this. Train . . . with . . . peeps.

4. There Was An Interesting Full Coming Up in (fill in your blank)

Clearly, my blank is always Disney. I love it and running a marathon there just seemed perfect. Well, except for the 26.2 miles part. Hardy har har. And Chicago? Well, I just couldn’t help myself since watching Spirit of the Marathon had served as my Red Bull for training for my first half. Taking on that challenge seemed almost inevitable for me. That third full at Disney? I’m not sure. I think maybe I was drugged.

5. I Recognized That I Might Not Always Be Able To Run a Full and With Every Passing Year, The Window could Be Closing (that’s a really long one, sorry)

The truth? At 41, I did feel (and still do to some extent) that aging is actually not a friend to distance running. Yes, you can find people in their 80’s that still do it but if you look at the cold hard facts, there are very few of them. Some stop because of injury, many more because their bodies just slow down and don’t respond to training like they used to. Either way, I figured if I was going to do it, now was the time. Much like women hear their biological clock ticking, I heard my marathon clock ticking and felt like it was now or never.

So is it time for you? Maybe. It’s kind of  a big deal, Kids. It takes A LOT of hours of training, even more hours of recovering and kind of takes over your life there at the end. At least it did mine because I have little to no natural running ability and have to fight for every mile. So not training has never been an option. But if you’ve done a half (or 2, or 3) and you felt good? The truth is the full is “only” a few more training runs after that. A 12 miler, 14 miles, 16 miler, 18 miler, 20 miler and you’re good to go! (your training plan may vary) If you read what I just typed and thought “heck, yeah!” then you might be ready.;)

If you decide to train for your first full the best thing I tell you is pick a race, find your tribe, set your training plan and just begin. A journey of 26.2 miles begins with a single step (yes, I actually typed that;). And seriously, it’s very cool to be able to say you’re a marathoner. And nobody can ever take that away from you.

Happy Running!

Jen