Half Maybe, Whole Doubtful

Loch Raven

Over the past weekend the Sadist ran his first marathon and of course he did the Marine Corp one.  As I checked on his progress via the web, I got to thinking about my next challenge.  Now that I completed the 10 miler it seems the natural progression would be to complete a half marathon.  It is basically one 5 k longer in distance, but those last 3 miles of the 10 miler were killer.  Do I really want to add on another 3 plus miles?  

Obviously, the longer the race, the longer it takes.   It took the Sadist over 6 hours to complete the 26 miles.  I can not imagine walking for 6 hours straight, let alone running it.  Generally, after my first two hours of running (with walking intermingled) my body starts to rebel.  Actually, it starts rebelling earlier than that, but so far I've been able to push through it.  The 10 miler pushed up and over my limits and it took me days to recover.  It was the first race where I didn't have the energy to kick into warp speed as I crossed the finish line.  I was just happy I was standing up or at least I think I was.  It's all a blur.

The idea of running a marathon is kind of cool, but the reality is not so much.  I am constantly pushing up and over my limits, but even I know I can go too far.  I always joke that for every mile I run, I go home and sleep an hour and the funny thing is, I really do that most weekends.  I'm not completely ruling out the marathon, but I am thinking it is very doubtful.  I know better than to say never.  I said that about running and look at where I am now. 

Whereas I am doubtful about the marathon, I'm a little less doubtful about the half.  This may be just the right challenge for me in 2015.  It won't be pretty and I'm sure my body will not be thanking me but to say I did a half would be amazing.  As soon as I figure out my next steps, I'm sure it will be posting them for all to see.  It makes it harder to back out that way.  :)