So, when I lost all the weight, I thought to myself, what could I do to keep from gaining the weight back? I thought back to my, for lack of better terms, "bucket list" of things I wanted to do before I hit the big 4-0. The marathon sat there, hiding in the corner of the yellowed paper, like I didn't really want to do it, I just threw it there because it was almost an obligatory item to be on any list of this type. So, I started looking around.
I found a marathon, before I found a training program, which I'm not sure is the usually way this process happens, but that's how if went down for me. I was surfing the net one night and found a website created by a man named Hal Higdon. Hal is this ancient looking dude who has ran more marathons than I probably ever will. On his page I found what he refers to as the Novice Supreme running plan. This is a 30 Week marathon training program that looked right up my alley. I mean, come on, he couldn't have made the program any easier. I have dubbed it the Couch Potato’s Marathon Plan. Literally, you start the program with a 1.5 mile jaunt. Most people can manage a 1.5 mile run, or at least a 1.5 speed walk, so it's a great launching pad. You can check out this running plan at Hal's site by clicking HERE!
So, with my running plan in hand, I just had to find a marathon. I Googled "European Marathons" and found a website that is basically a repository of all marathons throughout Europe called 42k195... yes, a marathon is 42 kilometers & 195 meters. Click HERE to see this website. It was nice, because this website broke down the marathons by month. So, after I melted a few brain cells, I figured out that I needed a marathon around April of 2010 due to the 30 week training program. There was only 1 run that stood out to me. The Paris Marathon. My wife & I had already been to Paris sightseeing and we loved the city so much, we promised ourselves to go back many times while we are here, though the French can be a touch rude!
I talked to one of my co-workers who runs frequently and has run marathons before and he said that Paris, though a beautiful run, is usually over-crowded and not very well put together. I went back to the internet to see if I could find some pictures of the race. Yeah, looks pretty crowded, but I decided I could manage! I loved the city so much, that I think I can fight the crowd during the run and still make it! Actually, the crowds will probably be so far ahead of me, I won't have to deal with them except for the very start of the run! Ha!
Since I was looking at the Paris Marathon site, which ya'll can view HERE, I decided to take a look at the course. The marathon actually runs by almost all of the most famous landmarks in Paris. The Louvre, the Eiffle Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Arch de Triomph, tons of cool sites. In fact, here's the map of the run route.
So, awesome! I got my marathon training plan, my marathon, and the ambition to get moving! That's when the military almost threw a wrench in my plan. I got informed I was selected to go to the NCO Academy.
The NCO Academy is a school that all NCO's must attend. It's extremely challenging and time consuming. I didn't know if I'd be set back on my training plan. I did the math, and wouldn't you know, God was watching out for me & my plan. The 30 weeks started exactly 1 day after I graduated! Amazing! It must have been meant for me to run this marathon. With all the pieces in place, I was ready to begin my training. By the way, I still got to run a good bit while in the NCO Academy... in fact I got a certificate for being one of the fittest members of my Flight for running 90 miles, 1700 crunches & 1600 push-ups across the 6 weeks of the course!
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