Pallet for Home

These are more or less in order of importance.

1. Believe that you can do it.  Really, marathoning is mostly mental.  Let me say that again.  Running a marathon is mostly mental.  Now I don't mean that we are crazy, well maybe we are.  I mean that you have to believe in your self and believe that you can accomplish this tremendous goal.  I didn't really believe that I could actually do this until about 1/2 way through my training.  Not until I could run 10 miles pretty easily, did I really believe that I could finish a marathon.

There's a link to Amazon on my side bar so you can purchase one for yourself.  You will want to own your own copy.  Trust me.  I learned so much about the nature of running, how we are designed, and the unlimited capabilities we humans have.  Plus it's a very entertaining read.  There is handful of swear words, just as a forewarning.  But it really changed my running style and form too.  That leads me to #3.

3.  Get good shoes.  Before this book, I believed that you have to spend a lot of money to get the right shoe.  I learned the hard way that you don't.  After lots of doctor visits, an x-ray, an MRI, and orthotics, I finally learned that I just needed some minimalist shoes.  They are cheap and allow your foot to do what it was designed to do.  Now if I wear my old running shoes, it makes my feet hurt and I can feel where the shoe is pushing on the foot in different places.  It's also called Barefoot Running and I would totally go barefoot if I had a huge grassy area to run in.  Part of my training included running hills at my local retention basin.  I ran them barefoot.  I loved it!  While it was killer physically, my feet never hurt and up to that point, never felt better.

4. Get a good running partner who has a similar running ability.  There will be lots of days that you don't want to get up and train.  LOTS of Days!  It helped me a ton to have someone who was depending on me to show up.  It works both ways.  Some days she didn't want to go, some days I didn't.  I was lucky enough to find a great friend who had already run St George 6 times.  She knew what to expect and how to prepare.  She really saved me in a lot of ways.  Also pick someone you want to spend a lot of time with.  Training takes 8-10 hours a week towards the end.  She is a better runner and helped me get to where I needed to be.

5. Cross train.  We added in biking, hills, and swimming.  This was my average week:

Monday: Run 5 Miles, Tuesday: Bike 10 Miles, Wednesday: Run 5 Miles, Thursday: day off, Friday: Bike 10 miles, and Saturday: Run 10 miles.  We would add in swimming after the normal run or bike on occation.  Swimming really helped my breathing get better and I got to where I could swim 1/2 a mile without too much trouble.  We added in running the hills regularly also.  Usually on a Saturday.  Of all the training we did, the hills helped me the most, by far.  I wasn't much of a biker before this, but now I love it.  It keeps my cardio up, but isn't hard on my knees or feet.  During part of my injured time we biked more because I couldn't run.  It helped me keep what I already had, and I think helped me be a better runner because it worked similar muscles.  St George is a ton of down hill.  Phoenix is pretty flat so we had to find places to practice the downhill.  During the race I was fine, but afterwards, my quads were shot.  Next time, I will definitely do more hill work.

I was super nervous as it got close to race time.  Packing the night before we left, I was shaking.  I will probably be nervous the next time, but now I know I can do it and I have done all I could do to prepare.  Again, running a marathon is mental.

The night before St George has a big Spagetti dinner for all the racers and their families.  I took way more than I could eat but I knew I needed the energy.  I probably only ate half.  Still too nervous.