Monday, September 27, 2010

Posted on Sugoi website

No, not like the ones all you super hot triathletes have nightmares about, sandy feet into cycling shoes and all that, but trying to go from cycling all summer to being ready to qualify for Boston in my first marathon.

Let me first describe my feelings about the marathon as a race:  This is likely one of the most absurd things that people do, and this is coming from someone that loves the steeplechase and cross country and races with big hills, bike rides like the highlander (death before dismount) and uphill time trials.  But as I’ve been training for the marathon with a couple buddies, the utter stupidity of this race and training for it has been the subject of much musing.

When you are an hour and fifty minutes deep into a run and just getting ready to start some intervals, that really strikes me as stupid.  As I headed out the door to start a three hour run (the idea being just to simulate being on my feet that long, practice feeding myself, etc.) I thought to myself that this was a particularly idiotic thing to be doing on a Saturday morning.

Don’t get me wrong, I am vaguely excited about the idea and particularly to run with my brother at Boston assuming he qualifies.  He is the whole reason I am even considering running this thing, but I like him so I can’t be too negative about the whole endeavor.

I actually wanted to write this because I have either convinced myself that compression socks and tights and half-tights are the greatest thing around, or perhaps they actually are the greatest things around.  I have been toying with the idea of them for a while, wearing the socks sometimes, wearing the full tights other times, but as I’ve started doing these absurd runs, 16, 18, 20+ miles, I have been more and more intrigued by them.

I’ve worn the R+R socks and the half-tights pretty frequently, half tights because I have huge fat legs that chafe like mad if I am not careful, and the socks because I have huge fat calves that appreciate being squeezed into something perhaps slightly more pleasing to the eye.  And after the runs I have pulled on the compression leg sleeves or the tights depending on whether I am in a place where I can hide while changing.

And I swear they make a difference.  I have put up with ridicule (mostly in my head ridiculing myself for looking totally ridiculous in long socks and half tights) and desperate shame from heading out the door looking like that, but I am beginning to be, as I said before, completely convinced of the benefits of this stuff.

So for all you folks that love marathon-ing…  I pity you almost as much as I pity myself these days.  But while you are at it, I would suggest the compression stuff.  Sure you might look ridiculous, and all the benefits could be in your head, but isn’t the marathon all about using your brain to convince your body that what you are doing isn’t totally idiotic?
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