Cheers to the Sunriver Marathon

While I have ran 7 distances between a marathon and a 50K, I have not signed up for an official marathon since 2006.

This weekend, I am running the Sunriver Marathon.

I am actually training for the Mt. Hood 50, which is schedule 7/30 and am using the Sunriver Marathon as training. Why not? I will be vacationing there anyhow.

My schedule actually says 31 miles. So as I show up and am in line with a bunch of die hard speedsters, I must remind myself that the Sunriver Marathon is not important to me and that I need to treat it as training, especially since I am adding 5 additional miles on at the end.

Although I heard that there will be an aid station every mile and I feel spoiled. I do think the Sunriver Marathon is wonderful training in preparation for the Mt. Hood 50. The elevation will be near 4,000 like the Mt. Hood 50. It will also be warm like the Mt. Hood 50. I've been warned that it's hard to keep moving at the 1/2, because it's at the start/finish. I have been trained for this:

Back when I was training for my first and second marathon, the excellent coaches made it so during our very hot and first 20 miler, we would run by our cars 4 times. Twice in the beginning, twice at the end. And we were told that we could quit. It was this kind of torment that makes it easy for me to keep going, even when everyone else is done. Throughout the years, I have experienced this kind of torment. I experienced it at the Hagg Lake runs in Forest Grove and I've often set up an aid station at my car or even home.

So in preparation for the Sunriver Marathon, I have been transitioning between running on the road and trail, obviously focusing more attention to the trail. Once, the marathon is over, my runs will be mostly trail runs.

And while, my family is vacationing in Sunriver and while I'm running and sweating to death and have thoughts of them lying around at the pool, I know one other person who is feeling the burn at the 1/2 ironman, my sister in law Julie.

So I say cheers to Julie and cheers to the Sunriver Marathon. 

I wrote the below statement on my Facebook account and as always in this stage of training with just a month to go till my big day, this is so true:

 "To me, the real test of one’s character isn’t defined by completing the marathon on race day, but rather by having the self-discipline and dedication to commit, sacrifice, and endure the months of training required to complete such an event."