Marathon Week Challenge: We be runnin' y'all!!

Once upon a time, I challenged myself to walk/jog/run 15 miles in a week.  I did it.

Mission Accomplished.  Woot, woot, bla, bla, bla…

Anyway…since then I have kind of caught the running bug, to the point where I am going to sign up for the Baltimore Marathon next October.  I would have signed up already, but registration doesn’t open until December 13th..D’oh!

As I’m sure most of you can surmise, a marathon is a HUGE feat (and for those who didn’t surmise that, just take my word on it).  It’s 26.2 motha f*ckin’ miles!  That alot.

Anyway, to kind of get myself started with this whole training business, I want to challenge myself to complete 26.2 miles over the course of one week.  Fifteen miles in a week wasn’t easy, and at 247 pounds I’m still an out of shape fat(and dumb, perhaps?)ass.  I have a feeling 26.2 is going to be hell.

Anyone want in?

Here’s the deal.  The challenge will begin on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 12:00am.  Will I be running at midnight? Probably not, and I’m not too worried about timezones either.  The challenge will end on Wednesday, December 9th at 12:00am.  The goal is to complete the distance of a marathon (which is 26.2 miles, if you didn’t catch that) in that time.  You can run, jog, walk, skip, waddle, do some of that Sound of Music mountaintop twirly sh*t, whatever…as long as one foot is moving in front (or behind if you want to do this backwards) of the other then its all good.

And while 26.2 miles is daunting, it can be broken down however you’d like. For example:

• 3.74ish miles a day for 7 days
• 5.24 miles a day for 5 days
• 26.2 miles a day for 1 day (which would be an actual marathon, and if you did that you would ROCK!)

The point is, it’s not impossible, although for alot of people it might be harder than for other, and you have two full weekend days at your disposal to cram as much in as you’d like. WooT to that.

I decided to make the start day next Wednesday because I’d like to see alot of others participate, and I know most people go away for the weekend and would probably like some warning, which is why I didn’t make the start day Monday.  Do I think alot of people will participate?  I dunno, not that it matters…at its heart its a fun little challenge for myself to see what I can do, and maybe get some others to test their limits as well.

I hope you’ll try it.  If you are interested you can leave a comment here, or email me (steve@265andfalling.com).  There are still details to be worked out, and I will update as things get ironed out, but what you have right here is the jist of it.  Pretty straightforward, right?

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.