Spirit of the Marathon

In light of this whole marathon theme, I ordered the documentary Spirit of the Marathon from Netflix the other day. The documentary follows the stories of several different marathoners preparing for the Chicago Marathon, from first-timers (oh yeah!) to seasoned veterans, from family members running together to an older gentleman who ran his first marathon at 65! Though yes I know, Mom, 65 is still very young. ;) Zack and I really enjoyed the stories and footage of the runners’ training and marathon, but I felt somewhat sad because it reminded me of how much of their training my body can’t handle right now. A year and a half ago, I could’ve watched this video and gone out the next day to start training, which is what I want to do! But now I’m lucky if I can do leg lifts and lift some two-pound weights in bed without straining my back.

I was talking about these mixed feelings with Zack, and we were both reminded of how important it is for us to have patience right now with life: career, health, schedule, fitness level, everything! I’m on day 82 today (82 days post-transplant), which feels like a couple days and a thousand years all at the same time, and I wish I could just snap my fingers and be at day 365! But I try to remember (and I’m fortunate to have Zack, my family, and some amazing friends to help remind me) how far I’ve come and how much better things are overall than they were a month, three months, and especially a year ago. So though I can’t train for my marathon in most of the traditional ways right now, I guess I’m mentally preparing, which hopefully is just as important! As grueling as it is, I’d still rather endure a marathon than a bone marrow transplant any day...

On a lighter note, as inspiring as the documentary is, it convinced me that I want to do a half-marathon instead of a full. There are some seriously insane people who run these marathons, especially Chicago and Boston. I’m talking about a woman running at a 5-6 minute mile pace for 26.2 miles. INSANE. I can barely sprint one lap at the pace they maintain for an entire marathon! But apart from not wanting to run with crazy people, I saw just how hard training for and completing a marathon is on your body. Preparing for a marathon requires not only massive amounts of time and physical training but also involves planning, stretching, changing your diet, and so much more. Since my goal is and always has been to run a marathon for fun and for the victory of finishing rather than for the competition, running a half-marathon seems to be a much better fit! I’m thinking somewhere with some beautiful scenery. I asked Zack if he would either run the whole thing with me or join me halfway through...no promises yet, but I think the documentary at least partially won him over :).