Prelude to a Marathon

I began my journey to the Antwerp Marathon before I even thought I'd ever be training to run 26.2 miles. I never much enjoyed running before my 40s although I had run a few 5Ks and 10Ks over the years -- even had a 1st place for my age in a 5K in 2000. Not that I was fast -- just not many people in my age range running and it was a small race! I trained (without a good plan) for the Pittsburgh Marathon around the same time and promptly developed an overuse injury -- right hamstring, ITB problems -- forcing me to the sidelines of running. I continued to bike but did my fair share of sitting on the couch.

Which brought me to August 2007. Overweight by 20 pounds and out of shape I started Weight Watchers and walking. I quickly grew bored with walking and decided I wanted to run again. I discovered the free C25K (Couch to 5K) nine week training program at the iTunes Store and by the end of October I was running 5K 3 times a week.

Next, an acquaintance told me about a television program on PBS that told the story of 20 people (aged 20 to 60) who trained for 20 weeks and then ran a marathon. This intrigued me so I ended up on Amazon.com and found "The Non-runners Marathon Trainer." It is a 16 week training program developed at the University of Northern Iowa that was taught as a class -- similar to the PBS group of marathon hopefuls. Now I was off and running. I began my 16 weeks on December 24, 2007 -- before I had chosen a marathon. My 16 week program had me aiming for a marathon the weekend of April 12-13, 2008. We were scheduled to began a vacation in Belgium and France on April 17th. There was no marathon on the East Coast for the weekend before our trip. But I did find a marathon in Antwerp (1 hour by car from Bruges where we would be the Friday and Saturday before the Sunday marathon) on April 20, 2008. A few adjustments to the training schedule and my journey continued ... now with a fully articulated goal: to arrive injury free in Antwerp and to finish the marathon.