Up for the challenge by FatFrank

I’ve officially registered today for my first ½ Mary ever that will be on May 4th in Quebec City. For a few years now we’ve been going there for the 10k and myself along with a few friends would agree before the race to contribute half of the prize money earned into a big BBQ where all the track team would be invited. I think that if I pull a win over there I’ll do it again this year because those were some pretty intense parties.

Anyways, something came to my attention at work this week while I was discussing about my intentions of running that half-marathon. People seemed somewhat impressed by the fact that I was going to run such a “long distance”. Some of my co-workers barely even knew that I was running competitively up to now and couldn’t care less but now that I’m about to tackle the half-marathon and then the marathon, they’re now super interested and want me to keep them up to date on how my training is going. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been in the sport for too long but I don’t see how running a longer distance can be considered as a better achievement without even taking the time into consideration. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to get the encouragement and to get people excited about my goal of running the marathon but I find it somewhat ridiculous that a 14:45 5K would go almost unnoticed (because let’s face it, running 5K is not all that hard) but running a marathon (all 42.2Km of it) is a feat worth mentioning. My point is that afterall running is in essence a race and not a test of survival and therefore, covering the distance is only one part of the equation but far from being the ultimate objective. This is why I’m asking myself this other question: Why do so many runners want to simply move up distances without considering what distance they prefer running and where they show the best potential? I mean there’s nothing wrong with sticking to shorter distances and improving on your time instead of trying to just go longer and longer. It just seems odd to me that so many runners try to reach that next level by stepping up from 10K to Half and then from Half to Full Marathon but so few will shoot for a time. Clearly something I don’t get but I know that if I run my marathon in 2hr50 I will be everything but smiles (considering what I’ve set as an objective) and I swear that the fact of completing the distance will definitely not be something that I’ll be proud of.

Well that wraps up my pseudo-editorial and now I’m putting on the final touches for my upcoming race which will be on April 19^th in Montreal… but no big deal, it’s only a 5K… haha!