26.2

Marathon. When I hear the word, I think of rake-thin foreigners wheezing across a finish line and collapsing in a heap of exhaustion, pain, and uncontrolled bowels. Sound like fun? Apparently it does. My brother ran the Portland Marathon last October. I can't let him get away with that. It's on.

The only problem is that I'm not a runner. I move heavy things.

So five weeks ago I started training (very slowly) and I've been surprised at how supportive my friends have been. It's great to hear people offer encouragement, but the ultimate is Matt Moseley and Tom Carlson running with me on my weekend runs. Big ups to my pals, it's waaay fun to have homeys to run with.

As far as challenges go, I'm going to bypass the obvious physical pain and move right on to the mental aspect. I started out running with my iPod, and the few times I forgot it were torturous. 30+ minutes of hearing nothing but my footsteps? I was bored to tears. Imagine me sobbing my way down the River Trail. Disturbing, no? Now imagine me wearing a diaper. Even worse, right? See, now the sobbing thing doesn't look so bad. Neither of those things have happened within the last two decades, by the way. Back to running.

Those of you who know me very well know that I need some sort of distraction like a tv on in the room, or I start getting antsy (that's a talk for another time). So, running without a distraction was excruciating.

Eventually, though, I started thinking while I ran. This novelty slowly evolved into quiet time for me. I can reflect on what I read earlier, pray, or just shut up and listen to God. There's no tv or radio to distract me, so it's like a mini vox dei every time I'm on the trail. Good stuff.

I'm still new to this whole running deal, but it's definitely growing on me. Are there any runners out there? What do you like about it? Any advice for a noob?