The Philadelphia Marathon is just around the corner and I will not be participating this year. At one point early in the summer, I really wanted to run it. As time slipped by, I thought about going for the half marathon. Then that got demoted to trying to be able to run over 10 consecutive miles on or near the race day, weather permitting. I will be very glad that I’m not running the marathon come 7:30 AM on November 22nd when I’m still fast asleep. But once 11:30 or so rolls around, I will be thinking that I should have taken a crack at it. Around that same time, I will probably give the 2010 marathon some strong consideration.
There were about three days over the course of this year that I gave the 2009 race some strong consideration. But it requires months strong consideration to pull it off.
Today I found myself thinking about what got in the way of staying interested in training. A few things came to mind right away. Running is hard and I don’t own any neon short shorts. Then another thought came rolling in: marathons are expensive. The Philly Marathon runs anywhere between 80 and 125 bucks depending on when you sign up. I consider this to be a lot of money to spend on the privilege of running down a few public streets, very early in the morning, on a day that is likely to have lousy weather. Unless I sell a fire alarm painting for a million dollars or the United States runs into some crazy Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation, $80 to $125 will still be a lot of money a year from now.
So once you are done thinking about how big of a cheapskate I am, continue reading and get prepared to have your mind blown.
It is not that the race costs a lot that kept me from signing up; it is that the race costs a lot and I didn’t pony up the cash right away. If running the marathon only costs $8 to sign up, I, along with a lot of other people, would have signed up right away. Come November, I, along with a lot of other people, would probably opt for sleeping in and skipping the race. $80 on the other hand, is just enough to make me feel stupid if I let it go to waste. $80 would make me feel that I have an investment in the race, something to lose. $80 would make it official that I am going to run that marathon and if I don’t follow through that would make me a big, fat failure.
So next spring, if I find myself giving strong consideration to running the marathon, which I am sure I will at some point, I will be sure to send in my check right away, because if I don’t, I will probably be in for another year of thinking that I should run a marathon some day.
October 29, 2009
Needless to say, I have been slacking on my updates lately. Although I would like to be able to say that I have been busy doing something productive like sequencing my genome or something daring and dangerous like rescuing a defenseless Black Angus porterhouse from a lion’s den, I unfortunately cannot. That would be a stone cold lie. The fact is that a few weeks of blistering heat, no A/C and an occasional impromptu bar crawl seemed to have zapped my motivation for the past two months.
At one point, I thought to look up some motivational tips. However, following through with most motivational tips seemed like a lot of work that I just lacked motivation for. So, to get back in the swing of things, I have compiled my own list of very effective motivational techniques:
1. If a supposed lack of time if holding you back, try out this first tip. Set your alarm to 4:30AM. When it goes off, immediately chug the two cups of coffee that you had strategically set next to your bed the night before. As long as you didn’t go to bed at 4:00AM or later, the coffee should be good and room temperature by this point. Please note that using hot coffee is extremely dangerous and should not be chugged. You also may want to consult your physician if you don’t think your heart is up to the challenge. After you down your two cups of java, squeeze in a quick stretch then crank out 10 push-ups and 40 or so jumping-jacks.
The idea here is that all of a sudden it’s about 4:35AM, you couldn’t get back to sleep even if you wanted to, and you have no plans for at least 3 hours. Ah, perfect time to chalk up a few check marks on the old to-do list.
2. If you find the ability to continuously eat right and exercise to be downright elusive, this next tip is for you. Anytime you feel like you should be exercising but feel too lazy just blow through these two easy steps. First, download Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and begin playing it on repeat. Next, open up a Google image search and type in “Atherosclerosis.” Keep clicking next until you can no longer reach the computer because you’re busy running on a treadmill.
Mmm, that Monte Cristo sandwich sure looks good, doesn’t it? But before sitting down to eat a deep fried sandwich wrapped in a donut, follow these next two steps to steer yourself back toward a bountiful bowl of field greens and a frosty pint of wheatgrass juice. First, download Toto’s “Africa.” Begin playing it on repeat. Next, open up a Google image search and type in “Diabetic Foot.” Yikes!
3. Do you need some extra motivation to learn more? Unfortunately, once you hit a certain age it gets a little harder to learn new things. As a kid you are forced to learn new things. At some point in time somebody sat down and decided that it was mandatory for me to wake up really early one day in the year 2000 and invest an hour of my life learning about the Teapot Dome Scandal. Thank you for that, society. But now I’m in my mid 20’s and it’s up to me to learn cool new stuff.
The quickest and easiest place to look for new knowledge is TV, but it will only get you so far. The Learning Channel can help you learn a lot, as long as you like to learn about morbidly obese people, midgets, and families with too many kids. PBS has some alright stuff. Norm Abram will show you what you can build with a lots of big fancy woodworking tools. But most people don’t have big fancy woodworking tools. What can you make with a hand saw and a drill? (Answer: an easel and a sprouter, so far)
Aside from wisdomlion.com, the only other place to turn is books. Until recently, I have always enjoyed buying books more than I have enjoyed reading them. Lately, however, I have been on a book reading rampage. I finally discovered my problem. I am reading books that take a great deal effort to get through. As I would start reading a book, there was always that intimidating thicker stack of paper in my right hand that made me feel like I was getting nowhere. I needed something to motivate me to read more.
So, if you are in a reading dry spell like I was and like interesting things like I do, go get some Malcolm Gladwell and Chuck Klosterman books. I may write up some more in depth reviews at some point but for now you just need to know that they write about lots of interesting things and constantly change subjects so you never get bored. Plus, they are easy to read. I could burn through a book in less than a week. So, I recommend slipping one of these books into the line-up every so often to give yourself some quick wins and keep you going.
September 27, 2009
