Last weekend I decided, on a whim, to jump and follow the big guys, the marathon clinic. For some reason, until you conquer the marathon, you’re like the kids in the playground, the older ones wear the long pants and you’re still wearing short ones. You haven’t quite “made it” yet. It’s not that you’re less of a runner than they are but there is a certain respect in having conquered the distance.
Because the marathon is a distance to be respected, all 42.2k of it. It takes no prisoners. Many have attempted to do it without any training, some have conquered it but many more failed. Even with training many have failed.
My current goal is to build my mileage so I can arrive at the start of the training with a good, solid base. So on Sunday, instead of doing the 18k that the half marathon clinic was scheduled to do, I quietly moved towards my friend and asked “so what’s your distance again?” When I heard the answer “we’re doing 23k” I immediately knew I would go with them. Of course, as soon as the words left my mouth, doubts entered my brain. Ack I thought… why did you say this? But I also felt a strange trepidation.
So we went outside to get our satellites and off we went. A group that had a good slow pace, in the 7:00 km/h range quickly formed. This is the pace I usually try to maintain in my long runs so I was happy to just follow them. I’m thinking, I can do this. People are chatting, catching up on news, discussing the weather, what they did the previous evening and so forth. It’s very social. I know a few people but I’m keeping in my bubble as I don’t want to run out of energy too quickly by yakking too much. I’m taken aback that the group run very closely to each other. There is a guy who keeps taking pics while running. He keeps bouncing off and click! A pic. Click, another one. All I see are flashes and I’m never prepared so I don’t smile in any of them…
Overall the run went very well. I did get tired towards the end and my form really suffered. I started to heel strike, which is not good. But I know that I will eventually get used to it so I’m not overly concerned now. But the HUGE milestone for me was to do 24k. I had never ran that long before! I couldn’t stop smiling and kept saying, probably to the annoyance of everyone within earshot, OMG I can’t believe I ran 24k!
I also ran .78k barefoot. In the pouring rain and on freezing pavement. And I discovered that yes, concrete is MUCH more comfortable than tarmac or asphalt. Oh yes…
My challenge will be to find THE perfect shoes to start training. I’m committed to go minimalist yet at the same time I’m a bit scared of it. What if I’m not ready? What if I get injured? Will I have the wisdom NOT to push through and seek help or take the necessary step back to deal with the issue?
So in my quest for the minimalist shoe that is good for me, I stumbled upon many websites and lots of good information. Which is great because I have no clue but at the same time, it made me even more confused than ever. Then I narrowed it down to 3 brands. They are:
I used the first two brands before but never Mizuno. I read good things about this one so I’m going to check them out. The problem is finding a store that has them all at the same place. Right now, it seems next to impossible. But I’m not giving up, not yet.
In the end, I may end up continuing running in the Zoot ULTRA Tempo+ 2.0.
Until then, my next race is the Mercedes-Benz 10k in Oakville on May 8. Bring it on, I can do it!
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