Less of Josephine.

I had plenty of time during this morning’s 5 miler to think about my current training plan — which is building up to a marathon in the fall. 26.2 miles seems like such an impossibly long distance, particularly when you are contemplating it while slowly running in 85% humidity with no breeze. My longest race to-date has been a half-marathon (13.1, obviously) and I tell you, it took some significant effort to finish it. And when it was finished I was never so happy to SIT DOWN and stop moving my legs. The idea of trotting another 13.1 miles at that point seems ridiculously far-fetched, and yet, people do. And supposedly, if I follow my training plan faithfully and think many, many positive thoughts, I can be one of those people.

At mile 4 of today’s run I thought to myself, “wow, a marathon is more than 6 times as long as what I’ve just completed.” At mile 5, I was too sweaty and pooped to do the math, so I just thought, “Wow” again and was glad that I was still early in my training schedule.

But even as I ended today’s run, I started working on the positive thoughts part of my training program. I visualized myself crossing the marathon finish line with a giant toothy smile and hands stretched overhead in the classic victory pose. I imagined the way I’ll feel when the finishers medal is placed around my neck. And it took no effort at all to imagine how good it will be to SIT DOWN!