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The diet and fitness blog is maintained by eDiets.com Senior Copy Editor Dorian Wagner, unless otherwise noted. eDiets.com reserves the right to delete any comments we deem inappropriate.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Running a Marathon... Am I Crazy?!?

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By Dorian Wagner
Senior Copy Editor

I've never been a "runner." I think the farthest I've ever even tried to run was a couple miles... and that was back in high school, because my volleyball coach said I had to.

So I have no idea how it got in my head that I wanted to run a marathon (26.2 miles!), but it did, and I LOVE IT.

I've been training for the Fort Lauderdale A1A Marathon for about five months now. I'm following a six-month program which starts out very slowly and encouraging -- my first time out, I only had to run/walk for 30 minutes. You gradually add miles (and drop the walking) as time goes by.

Every Saturday morning, I have to do a "long run," which gets longer every week. And when I say long, I mean loooooong. My first long run was only set at 3 miles, which I still thought was a little crazy at the time. I'd never run 3 miles in my life! But I did it. And it was awesome. The feeling of accomplishment I had at the end was enough to make me look forward to the next Saturday.

Last weekend I ran 20 miles. In one day. One morning.

You read that right. And that's why I sometimes wonder if I'm crazy. But in the same second, I always realize I'm not.

I love running now. It's put me back in the shape I was in in high school. It gives me a reason to get up every morning and get moving. It gives me something to look forward to, something that has great meaning to me.

I'm running a marathon. It's something most people will never do in their lives. It's something I can talk about with enthusiasm, with accomplishment, with pride. And when it's all said and done, and I cross that finish line exhausted and overjoyed, I won't just be Dorian Wagner anymore... I'll be Dorian Wagner, Marathon Runner.

P.S. My marathon is February 17. Be sure to check back and I'll post how I did! And in the meantime, check me out in our podcast (I'm the one with the squash, which I can't really explain. It was just there on the desk, so I picked it up.)

Labels: exercise, fun, motivation, running