Runner's high or just high?

Jess has been bugging me to post something new, but I feel like I haven't had anything exciting to talk about...until now.

It started on a day much like today (minus the cold air and wind that threatens to tip the trailer I work in...). My coworkers and I were sitting around, talking about running, laughing and reminiscing about how fit we all used to be (except Anela and Jeff still are!)...I was saying that I used to run four miles every single day BEFORE soccer practice even started, not to mention all of the games, wind sprints, etc. This got us all on a kick toward getting healthy and running, then up came the subject of marathons. We kicked around the idea of all four of us getting together to train for a marathon. That's all Anela needed to hear before she looked up every website imaginable on the subject and found a plan, then a marathon called the Big Sur International Marathon.

Anela then printed out the plan, tailored it to our time frame (26 weeks) and talked all of us into starting. So far, Anela and I are three weeks in, running two minutes, then walking one minute five times (equivalent to about two miles run/walk). At the beginning of week two, we mentioned it to our editor-in-chief, who has now registered and talked about seven other people into running it, too, including a couple people from her gym.

To make a long story short, we have all been living and breathing our training regimens here in the office. We have started throwing around the idea of starting a blog just for our training and have put our marathon story on the futures list for our women's magazine...a personal account from each of us on what it means to us and what we hope to accomplish.

For me, the whole idea hits me with excitement and apprehension. I am excited to believe that I can accomplish something that for so long struck me as just plain crazy. I used to run, I loved to run. I tried long distance in track, ran one cross country race, but was always so slow...which leads right into apprehension. I am afraid of failure; afriad of going through all of this training to find out I am unprepared for a race of this magnitude.

Then, I think of those around me who are going to do this. People who generally are similar to me: not-so-athletic, but determined to overcome a stack of obstacles that face them. They are there to provide support and help make the running and training a little easier, share stories of success and failure and give encouragement when the going gets tough.

In the book I am using as reference, Runner's World Executive Editor Amby Burfoot says, "And here's what I have learned from hundreds of women runners: You can make your running into whatever you want it to be. You can go for the gold, or you can simply set out to achieve something you never dreamed possible."