#299 Miles and Miles

This year I am training to run a marathon. It's my first time. (A lot of people are surprised to hear that, but I never really had the urge before.) I am registered for the Des Moines marathon in October. It works out really well because it's a couple days after a family wedding, so I was planning to be off that Sunday anyway.

Last fall I ran a half marathon, so—as you might expect—I never ran farther than the 13.1 miles I ran on race day. When I was in college training for 8000m cross country races as well as 5000m and 10,000m track races, I ran double digit mileage pretty regularly, but never more than 16 miles at a time. It won't be too long before I enter uncharted territory here.

Getting ready for a 26.2 mile race is going to require some serious mileage. My training plans kicks off one week from today. Each week's longest run will be on Saturday, so starting Saturday, July 1, I am going to be running somewhere between 10 and 20 miles every Saturday morning for 15 weeks. If you live in Northwest Iowa and have some free time, I would love to find some people to ride bike next to me while I'm out pounding the pavement. Tess and I have a couple adult bikes, so you wouldn't even need to bring your own transportation. I'll be working hard, but I won't be running very fast for a bike, and it would be great to be able to carry a water bottle on the bike. I'll be happy to make conversation, and I'll be a pretty captive audience if you want to talk to me. Let me know if you're interested and when you're free. Even if you can't commit to the whole run, any little bit helps.

Grace and peace,

BMH