Run number 3

Run number 2

I went on my second run today. It was a task that I foresaw as daunting since I awoke this morning. When I got out of bed my muscles were still sore, especially my shins, and it made me dread running, up until I came to the point of actually doing it. I even thought for a while that I would just push it off until tomorrow, however I conjured up the motivation to get on with it. I made sure I stretched for around 5 minutes before to loosen my muscles to make them hurt less while I ran. To kick it off I ran up the big hill across the street from the place where I’m staying, in Shiloh Hills, my motivation to get going was the song Harvard on the Hudson by With The Punches, a hard hitting pop-punk song that makes me feel alive with each listen. I reached the top of the hill, then came the obvious decline, compensating for my weight whilst going downhill is not very easy at first, but I got into the swing of things fairly quickly. The next half mile or so is for the most part straight ground, with a little bump of a hill here and there, and With The Punches was still blasting in my ears. I decided I need a change of speed in the songs, for I was listening to a slower more depressing song of theirs about infidelity, so I put on their E.P. entitled It’s Not The End Of The World, track one, Never Stop, which seemed like a good fit for I was just starting to feel a little fatigued. The song starts rather abruptly, and keeps the same pace throughout the whole song, it is fast, energetic, and very well be the definition of what newer pop punk should sound like. The song brought upon me a new energy, the likes of which I have never felt before. I could feel my pace start to quicken. Before I knew it I was in a full on sprint; it’s as if I instinctively started to run faster without putting any thought into it. I realized that was a bad idea and began to slow down, but it was too late, the sprinting had already worn a lot out of me, and I still had another two hills to go up, one of which was the big hill I went down in the start. Things were not looking very well. I had to keep my composure. I continued at a slower pace, making sure I would ration the rest of my stamina and energy for the short distance left of my run. I could feel my muscles getting sore, I was starting to breathe heavy, my side started to cramp, but I was determined, I had to get through it.

I got done with the first hill, a small but long hill, but in comparison to the next one, it may as well have been a pebble in the road. This next hill was nothing to trifle with; it’s tall and long, with several steep spots of elevation, three to be exact. I came to the base of the hill and saw the challenge staring back at me, and I started to wonder if I would make it. I started up the first slope, it was easier than I expected, however that was just the start, and the burning in my thighs grew ever noticeable in my conscious mind. I had made it up the first slope and was on my way to the second, fatigue was setting in more and more with each second, each step took a little more out of me. By the time I got done with the second hill I wanted to stop, I was so sore and regretted sprinting earlier, if I had just a little more energy I could make it. I started to slow down. A thought then popped into my head, I was almost there, so close to finishing, and I had one more slope to go up until I was at the summit of the hill, the energy may have been lacking, but I needed to get through it. It was something I had to prove to myself that I could do; what if I were to be running the marathon a year from now, and give up a mile before the finish line because I was tired, I would regret that every day after until I actually finished one. I realized that in order to get away from that happening I had to eradicate all train of thought that lead to exceptions, which is the only way that I can be sure of not falling short.

I climbed the hill one fatiguing step at a time, slowly but surely, I was determined, I was going to make it. I thought of a song by The Mountain Goats, called This Year, where the lead singer, John Darnielle, poetically sings the lyrics “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me”, and I thought to myself, I am going to make it up this hill if it kills me. And I did. I reached the peak, both of the hill and of my mentality to keep going.

One thing that I have learned thus far from these two runs is that one should never sell themselves short; anyone can do anything with the right drive and motivation. I know motivation is hard to come by, if you wait for it to find you it will never come, and if you try and search for it you will never find it, motivation is something you have to create, one small step at a time.

Thanks for reading

-Marcus.

Rest day.

My first run.

2 Replies

Today marked the start of my training with my first run, at 1.31 miles, it was a little bit harder than I expected because when I ran two and a half years ago I had no problems running this distance at first, however I got side cramps, light headed, and coughed a lot. Man I’m out of shape. I ran it in about 14 minutes, including walking the rest down the hill which was about two minutes. By the time I got to my mile marker I was at about 7 minutes, which is pretty good considering I was running on all hills, right? At least I think so. And after I got to the one mile marker I slowed down considerably. I will admit that I wanted to give up, which is kind of sad considering it was one mile, but listening to The Wonder Years got me motivated enough to finish.

So now, about 12 hours later, my shins hurt, so I need to develop more muscles in them to make them hurt less, at least that’s what I suspect I have to do. Tomorrow will be a day of rest for me, because like I said, I want to take things slow at first and not hurt myself, spring is where it’s going to get interesting.

Thank you all for reading this, and sorry it was so short this time. Next time it won’t be. Promise.

Also here is a link to the run I did today, it’s probably the one I will continue to do until I feel more comfortable running farther.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/148521857

-Marcus

What this blog is about.

7 Replies

Hello, my name is Marcus Baumgardner, and this is my blog.

The goal of this blog is to chronicle the course of my training for a marathon, the ups and downs there will no undoubtedly be, the times I will want to give up, the apathy I will have to conquer and the pride I will feel in accomplishing something I set out to do. I have next to no experience running and I’m giving myself a year to train for it. The last time that I ran habitually was about a year and a half ago, which was rather short-lived because I had some bad shin splints. So right now I am starting from nothing… and am going to run a full marathon… In less than a year…

How did I get the idea to run a marathon?

On October 7th my girlfriend finished her first full marathon, however she in the months preceding her marathon she had no time to train because her schooling got in the way of it. She didn’t think she would make it but she wanted to try anyway. I didn’t get to see her off from the start but I did get to see her there when she finished, and that moment when she crossed the finish line, the culmination of all of the hard work she put into doing this, the long runs, the stressful days, the defeat of apathy when she didn’t really want to run, courage in the face of adversity, that was the most proud I have ever been of her. To me, her crossing that finish line, hearing her name called out as she did so, and getting a medal draped around her neck as she crossed, made all of the stress, hard work, agonizing pains and her struggles with all of her running injuries (and there were quite a few of them), not matter anymore, because she did it, even when she didn’t think she would.

That’s how I got that idea, seeing how everyone was so proud of her, how she was proud of herself, how she set a goal and accomplished it even when it seemed impossible, getting that medal as a token of her accomplishment, I wanted that. I wanted someone to be proud of me for the things I accomplished. Then I though to myself, “what have I accomplished?”. Well, nothing really. I graduated High School, but barely; not to say I wasn’t capable, I just wasn’t motivated. I played a couple of shows in a band. But that’s it. If I were to die tomorrow I would have nothing in my life that I am particularly proud of.

As I walked back to where I parked to get the car to pick up my girlfriend and her mother from the grounds, I was listening to the song ‘A Year As A Ghost’, by The Wonder Years off of the album Suburbia: I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing, and I had a revelation. Dan Campbell wasn’t the only one to spend his life as a ghost, drifting by, not really doing anything that he found as significant, I have that same problem. I have spent my whole life as a ghost, drifting on from place to place, not making anything out of myself, and not caring about that I haven’t, giving up whenever things got tough, not trying to better myself, feeling sorry for myself and being all around depressed, and let me tell you… It’s no fun. I always though that I couldn’t do something because I was the one doing it, other people can, but I can’t. But then, as I was walking, listening to this song, I thought to myself, ‘Who the fuck am I to tell myself that I can’t do something?’ (specifically this marathon), and in that moment of pure, unadulterated truth, I realized that I can do whatever I want to with my life, and if you think I can’t then I don’t need you in my life. I also realized you’re only sad and depressed until you decide to make a change in your life. Albert Einstein once defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’, so if I were to keep on feeling sorry for myself and doing nothing to change that, I shouldn’t expect myself to one day become happy. With that revelation I came to the conclusion that I would start training for the marathon.

I plan on running through this whole winter, taking it a mile or two at a time, just to get myself into the feel for running, and hopefully the bitter cold air will give my lungs some strength, and build up my cardio a little faster, and then whence spring hits, that’s when the real fun begins, that’s when I go all out, that’s when I will really learn how to push myself, that’s when I will find my limits and give them the finger as I pass them by, that’s when I will show myself who I really am and what I can really be. Everyone has the capacity for greatness, you just have to push yourself toward it. You can only feel sorry for yourself for so long before you do something about, and I certainly intend to.

Today marks the start of my training, and the start of my story of greatness. To those of you who took the time out of your busy lives to read this I bid thanks to you, and I hope you keep reading, as I’m sure you will hope I keep running.

Thanks