"You never know what lies ahead. Sometimes I wish I could see for miles down the road ahead or anticipate every turn. Logically, I know it’s not feasible to prepare for every instance when something unexpected might occur in life; and I’ve seen the same kind of randomness happen during marathons."

-Jill woxland

Autumn is more than upon us. It’s peak time for foliage, racing to the end of yet another year and for bucket list marathons. We had ours in the Twin Cities a few weeks back, the prestigious Chicago Marathon was one week later, and the most prestigious of them all –  The NYC Marathon – which takes place this weekend. After cheering on the Twin City runners this year and viewing all the inspired photos online, I seriously have that Big Apple itch once again. I am feeling more and more as though I need a big scary goal – and this time, more than a PR, more than “going the distance”, if I do decide to train for a 6th marathon, my goal- qualifying for Boston.

The urge to run a marathon came to me late in life. In 2009, my oldest son Kipp ran the Twin Cities. A year later my daughter, Brita, ran the NYC Marathon. Both experiences were so inspirational – watching my children commit, plan and train for months, and then watching them crossing the finish line, to hearing their stories of wanting to quit, hitting the famous “wall,” and not giving up. I decided to run my first in 2011. I needed to keep up! I suppose it’d be fair to call marathoning my midlife crisis.

Before training for my first marathon, I was a casual runner. Very casual. I was always an athlete, but you would hardly say running was my ‘thing’. A few Turkey Trots here and there, a weekend lap around a neighborhood lake, or just chugging away on the treadmill during the winter.  I learned to love the training. It was my time to think and be alone with my thoughts, a much-needed stress reliever and most importantly, I learned daily that I was capable of more than I ever thought I was. Looking back on training for my first marathon, I remember thinking….” oh good, only a 10 miler today”. What?! The long runs were so incredibly daunting for me. I would try to leave work early so I did not have to run in the dark. Most of the time, something came up at work late in the day, hence I would be running until after 10pm to get that 17-miler in. My late husband Mike would magically appear at points along my training route for all the long runs with water, energy gels, a thumbs up, a smile and sometimes a “are you crazy” sentiment! I was so into it, there was no way I was missing a training run, no matter the weather, the time of day or the temptations and subtle pressure from family and friends as I missed out on social engagements – my life was running and work for many months. 

Marathons have been used as metaphors for many things, and rightly so. Distance running takes the same mindset as so many other challenging endeavors: discipline, persistence, planning, training, resilience, and my personal favorite – obsession.  

If you look at it start to finish, a marathon at 26.2 miles is an incredibly daunting undertaking. I decided to block out my training as a gradual, progressive series. 40 steps at a time in the beginning. Then one-half mile at a time. One mile at a time. And eventually, one lake at a time, one playlist at a time, one hour at a time and so on, including one cramp and tear at a time.