The Calm Before the Running Storm

Sunday, September 4th. My last day of freedom.
For the next 18 weeks I will run, go to work, run, buy Gatorade by the barrel, run, check for missing toenails, run and run some more. In my last hours of training-free life I can't help but think about what I will be missing out on for the rest of 2009.

Free Time
This is the most obvious casualty of my marathon training. Instead of going out with friends, I'll be running. Instead of sleeping in on weekends, I'll be running. Instead of finding clean socks in my drawer, I'll be digging through the dirty clothes hamper. And then I'll be running.

Real Dinners
Given that I need to run 4 days of week, 3 of them after a full day of work, I'm guessing that cooking dinner will be a thing of the past. Of course, that would imply that in the past I've cooked dinner on a regular basis. No comment on that. Let's just say that most of my dinners in the coming months will likely consist of sports drinks, energy bars and possibly things in my refrigerator that haven't turned green yet.

My cheery disposition
Those that know and tolerate me can attest to the fact that if you catch me after 9:00 a.m., I can be almost congenial. After spending my evenings discovering how many sweat glands I have and walking like someone who's spent the last week on a horse, I might just be just a tad less pleasant. You were warned.

My Sanity
As we've already established, my sanity has already been questioned due to my attempt at this marathon endeavor. I have semi-good reasons for deciding to run this marathon. However, around week 5 these reasons are going to seem questionable even to me. At this point in training, there's a good chance that running down the street in the dark in spandex might be one of the sanest things I did all day.

So yeah, I'm going to miss some things during my training but let's look at all I have to look forward to: becoming one with the pavement, feeling every muscle below the waist (at least I'll know they are there!) and appreciating my car more than ever. Bring on the miles!