Choosing a marathon

If the timelapserunner is going to invest from four to six months of training towards achieving the demanding goal of completing a marathon, it would make sense to carefully choose the venue. This would seem important, perhaps especially so for a first marathon.

With so much investment going into the preparation upfront, I'd want the experience to be an inspired and a successful one, with an energizing route and plenty of logistical support from race direction and moral support from the local community.

timelapserunner

Time lapse photography example

Perhaps I should explain the significance behind the handle timelapserunner (or alternately, time lapse runner). It's basically a play on words. A multiple play on words, or at least a set of words amenable to multiple meanings. The standard meaning of time lapse that usually comes to mind is the technique called time lapse photography, where slow-moving events are photographed one frame at a time at a fixed but infrequent interval, then played back in real time at many frames per second (typically 24 to 26 fps). We've all seen the videos of flowers blooming, clouds moving across the sky, or the sun setting, all in just a few seconds of video.

Why not the mile? It's shorter, you know.

Bannister and Landy immortalized
(Courtesy sashafatcat @ Flickr)

Admittedly, the mile is much shorter than the marathon and there is a great deal of nostalgia connected with the mile. There's the great story of Roger Bannister breaking the 4:00 barrier - a feat some thought impossible for the human runner. There's America's favorite son, Jim Ryun, who broke the outdoor mile world record twice, the indoor record once, and set the 1500m world record which stood for six years. Though the mile distance is typically not competed internationally, it still remains an American favorite in the minds of many. There are even efforts to bring back the mile as a competition distance here in the United States.

But why the marathon?

Indeed, why the marathon?

(Courtesy heza @ Flickr)

There's no one defining reason for doing this, running this insane distance. Perhaps it's the allure of achieving a goal very few pretend to, or ever achieve. Maybe it's a renewed understanding that pursuing fast times in short races increases the risk of injury, especially as one ages. It's often difficult to unravel one's motivations for pursuing seemingly irrational dreams.

Why running?

Why running?

Vince, a good friend of mine, introduced me to running more than twenty-five years ago and although we jogged together for a while, running gradually became a solitary activity for me. That's OK. My INTJ personality type doesn't mind being alone, at least not for the while that the road has me occupied. That quiet time gives me a chance to let my mind wander, or to center myself or even to escape some stressor for a brief bit.

At various points along those two and half decades, I alternately put the running shoes in the closet and took them back out again. Nearly two years ago, in the midst of one of those "shoes outside the closet" periods, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Though recovery from that life-altering event has been mostly smooth sailing, the shoes went back in the closet for the next six months.

A journey of 26.2 miles begins on the couch.

timelapserunner at rest

This crude misphrasing of Lao Tzu's ancient wisdom can readily be applied to many of us who, after years of neglecting our need for exercise, have finally stumbled out the door and onto the streets in our neighborhood in pursuit of fleeting youth or - more likely - in fear of a scolding we expect from our family doctor at our next visit.

Running for exercise and improved health is not everyone's cup of tea, however. Still, there's apparently a growing interest in the sport - and particularly in the half- and full marathon distances. Indeed, there were more than a half million marathon finishers in the United States last year.