A Change of Pace

Hello again, everybody (or whoever's left, anyway).

As you probably don't recall, since I haven't written anything here in about two months, I've been in the process of dropping weight and increasing my fitness.  As of this writing, mission is mostly accomplished.  I've dropped from 295 pounds to 190, and . . . get ready for this . . . have begun training to run in my first marathon.

I know.

Up until now, my only experience with marathons was the Marathon candy bar.  Remember those?  Twisty chocolate and caramel, good for increasing your blood sugar and ripping out fillings at the same time.  But now, we're talking about running 26.2 miles in under the race time limit of seven hours.  After the time expires, apparently, you're on your own to fight traffic and miss out on the post-race medal and free snacks.

Since this whole idea undoubtedly seems absurd to all of you (as it kind of does to me as well), I'm going to try to document the experience as either a glowing testimony to a man who accomplished something he believed to be impossible, or (more likely) as a posthumous warning to others about the dangers of embarking on a really stupid endeavor that's far beyond one's capacity.  Either way, I hope it'll be fun reading.  I'll try to provide updates every week or so, right up to the marathon date.

To fill you in on what you've missed, I am currently signed up for three official events which are as follows:

January 19, 2013: Ontario Mills 10K,  Ontario, California. 
March 10, 2013: San Diego Half Marathon,  San Diego, California
May 5, 2013:  Orange County Marathon,  Newport Beach, California

Just so you don't think I'm completely out of my mind (not that you'd be wrong, but go with me here), I am in fact training for these events.  Back in September, I began a running program that basically consists of four runs per week.  Three of these are relatively short runs (3-6 miles), and Sundays are reserved for a "long run."  The idea of the long run, according to various online resources, is to increase the distance by a mile or so every week until you get to 20 miles.  The idea here, I suppose, is that once you can run 20 miles, the last 6.2 in a marathon is a matter of will and survival.  Sounds great, doesn't it?

Three months into the program, I'm up to 15 miles for the long run, the most recent of which was yesterday morning.  It's getting easier, but I'm usually sore for a day or so afterward.

So thus begins my weekly (or so) journal of a former fat guy preparing to run a marathon.  This, of course, should not be seen as a "how-to" guide or anything remotely resembling advice on fitness or running (aside from research from more credible sources that I may add along the way).

And as a refresher, here's a reminder of the sorry state I was in less than a year ago, along with a more current shot:

January, 2012

October, 2012