Twenty Six Point Two
About three months ago I was playing racquetball with a couple other MBA students when I was asked if I was interested in running a marathon in January. My initial reaction was of course, “No way. Why would anyone want to run a marathon?" But somehow, after an intense round of peer pressure and prodding, I was suddenly committed to running in my first marathon.
The very next week I started training. Brett, the ringleader of the operation, set me up to do the typical beginner training regimen. The program required shorter runs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. A long run on Saturday and a cross-training workout on Sunday. The long runs started off easy — around 5 miles, but quickly built up. The longest training run was designed to be 20 miles.
Through a combination of a heavy workload, the holidays and a knee injury, I fell deeply off track of the training program. The program asked for 435 miles to prepare for the marathon. But by the time of race, I had completed only 200. I started getting really nervous the last two weeks before the race. I was worried that I didn’t train enough and my body wasn’t in good enough condition to complete the race. Two weeks before the race, I set out to run 20 miles to test whether I could do it. I was disappointed to find out that I could only complete 17 miles before my body completely locked up. By race day I was in serious dread. I was desperately hoping the whole event would be canceled or postponed.
The Rock n' Roll Marathon is in its 10th year in Arizona, and the series is nationwide at this point. Locally, it brings in over $50 million in revenue every year, and when you consider how many marathons there are here because we can literally have great weather runs nine months out of the year, you can see that this sort of thing is part of living in Arizona. There's so much to do outdoors, and I feel like I'm just getting started.
As for the race itself, my body held up much better than I expected. It wasn’t till around mile 20 that I really started to tire. The last 6 were tough, but I never needed to stop for more than a few seconds. I was shocked.
I can’t say that I would ever do something like this again, but now that it’s over, I’m so happy that I did it. I’m usually upset at myself when I make quick decisions without thinking through all the ramifications. But this is a case of if I would have thought through it any longer, I never would have agreed to do this. It was an unexpected perk of being in the W. P. Carey Full-time MBA program — one of those things I can always look back on with a feeling of pride.
The very next week I started training. Brett, the ringleader of the operation, set me up to do the typical beginner training regimen. The program required shorter runs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. A long run on Saturday and a cross-training workout on Sunday. The long runs started off easy — around 5 miles, but quickly built up. The longest training run was designed to be 20 miles.
Through a combination of a heavy workload, the holidays and a knee injury, I fell deeply off track of the training program. The program asked for 435 miles to prepare for the marathon. But by the time of race, I had completed only 200. I started getting really nervous the last two weeks before the race. I was worried that I didn’t train enough and my body wasn’t in good enough condition to complete the race. Two weeks before the race, I set out to run 20 miles to test whether I could do it. I was disappointed to find out that I could only complete 17 miles before my body completely locked up. By race day I was in serious dread. I was desperately hoping the whole event would be canceled or postponed.
The Rock n' Roll Marathon is in its 10th year in Arizona, and the series is nationwide at this point. Locally, it brings in over $50 million in revenue every year, and when you consider how many marathons there are here because we can literally have great weather runs nine months out of the year, you can see that this sort of thing is part of living in Arizona. There's so much to do outdoors, and I feel like I'm just getting started.
As for the race itself, my body held up much better than I expected. It wasn’t till around mile 20 that I really started to tire. The last 6 were tough, but I never needed to stop for more than a few seconds. I was shocked.
I can’t say that I would ever do something like this again, but now that it’s over, I’m so happy that I did it. I’m usually upset at myself when I make quick decisions without thinking through all the ramifications. But this is a case of if I would have thought through it any longer, I never would have agreed to do this. It was an unexpected perk of being in the W. P. Carey Full-time MBA program — one of those things I can always look back on with a feeling of pride.
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W. P.