The Long Run

Shhh…come here and I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I’m going to whisper it because that’s what you do when you tell a secret. Ok, here goes:

Tomorrow I run my longest run of all time, and the longest run of my Marathon training.  Tomorrow I’m going to run 20 miles.

There, I said it.  I guess it never was a secret in the first place, as I’ve been sharing my Marathon experience ad nauseum since the whole thing began.  And it’s probably no secret that I’m more than a little anxious about the 3 hours or so I’ll spend tomorrow with foot pounding pavement.

Anxious. Scared. And actually a little bit excited.

It’s the excited part that I never would have predicted.  So I guess that’s the real secret I was talking about.  When I first printed out my training plan and saw the dreaded 20 mile run on tap for Week 13, there was a part of my stomach which immediately curled up as my inner monologue screamed at the outer Zack, “WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR.”  In all honesty, the idea of a 20 mile training run was much more nervewracking than 26.2 on the actual race day.  After all, at the end of the 20 all you have to show is some tired legs and the realization that another 20 miler is staring you in the face in a couple weeks.

But that was more than 13 weeks ago.  More than 370 miles ago.  And a couple pounds of fat turned into muscle ago.

My attitude has changed over time.  It’s not just about race day anymore; though I guess in looking back I’ll realized that it never really was.  In many ways I was right - the 20 miles tomorrow very well may be a tougher challenge than the actual event on Nov. 1st.  Which is all the more reason  I need to come face to face with the challenge tomorrow, overcoming the physical pain and battling through the mental anguish.

I can’t wait for tomorrow and the pain to come, to see if I can make it through every last mile.  I can’t wait to stretch beyond where I’ve ever gone before and to see if I can take it.  That’s the real secret I’ve learned through this whole training process - attempting to do something which poses the distinct possibility of failure is an amazing (and perhaps only) way to live.

Here’s to doing something this weekend that you once never considered possible…