26.2

What’s 26.2?

Any guesses?

26.2 mile, distance you need to run to complete a marathon. How many of you would like to run a marathon? I took a personal challenge last year to run San Francisco Marathon and today I am going to share with you 3 things that you would need to successfully run a marathon.

The 3 things are:

-- Commitment

-- Endurance

-- Good Company

I personally feel these 3 things will actually make you successful in every walk of life. Let’s start with commitment.

When I signed up for San Francisco Marathon, I committed to give the time and energy required for training and race. I signed up with Run 365 training group of South bay. There were 3 training sessions in a week; hill runs on Tuesdays, Tracks on Thursdays and long runs on Sundays.

Because of my commitment, my schedule had to be altered; I could no longer attend Saturday night parties, as I had to be up by 6 am on Sundays and be at the Los Gatos creek trail by 7 am. There was a commitment to a strict diet plan, as it always easier to push a lean body. I remember April through July of 2012 were my most healthy months of life so far. I used to be much more hungry than usual because of the exercises but still couldn't eat all the things that I love i.e. fries, ice-cream. The intake and the results both were fruitful.

Endurance

Endurance is the key to success. There were always times when I felt, why I chose to run a marathon. Why?? Let me just leave it, its not going to earn me anything, but I knew there was no coming back. I was tested for endurance throughout my training sessions and the marathon. All the training sessions were different, they had their own ways to test my endurance and in turn make me stronger. Hill runs were beast of their own. We used to practice at Rancho San Antonio Park in Los Altos. Our hill runs used to be 5-7 miles, but running on hills was a challenge and true test of my endurance, you were always tempted to stop as slopes became steeper, but if you stop it’s even more difficult to start over again and you get left behind from the group. You had to aim towards the top of hill and just run towards it.

Track runs; we used to train at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, our track runs were 4-6 miles, but concentrated more on building the pace.

Sunday long runs; 8-22 miles long, a remarkable way to build endurance. I have also been a person of fewer miles and running long distance would bring chills down my body. But after training for long runs, I was on different record, steadily progressed miles every week and just kept going. Cramps, hot weather, and hunger nothing seems to bother anymore.

Race day is a different challenge, it was my longest run and I was recuperating from an injury. During my run I developed a severe cramp on my left knee and everything just stopped for a moment, but I started again after some stretches, still in pain and surprisingly was actually able to finish the run.

Good Company

It’s what makes or breaks the deal. When I started running with the training group, I initially joined a fast paced group (9 min/mile) and every time when I used to run with them I used to get left behind and feel dejected. But then I met a group leader of a slower pace group (11 min/mile) and I described my situation to her and after further discussions, she asked me to join her group, so that I could start of slow and move to a fast pace group as I progress. The kind of motivation, support and training I received from the group leader and members was outstanding. We used to share light moments about our life, things happening around, and believe me 16 miles used to be a CakeWalk. The group camaraderie continued even through the race day, we ran the race together, helped, and motivated each other through out the race. Sandy our group leader was an amazing coach; I had titled her “Marathon Mom”, given the kind of guidance, support she used to provide. Believe me it wouldn’t have been possible to finish the marathon without the support of these wonderful friends.

I had fun practicing and running the marathon. I assure you that commitment, endurance and good company would definitely help you in completing the marathon of the life.