My First Marathon
It’s no fifty-miler, but 26.2-mile first step. I’m training for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon which takes place on Sunday, October 5, 2008.
I’m a few weeks into a marathon clinic at the Uptown Running Room, and my training schedule has me running a total of 35+ miles this week, including an 18-mile run this Sunday.
My training runs, most of which take an hour our more, have proven an excellent opportunity to practice Hebrew with the Pimsleur recordings I’ve ripped to my iPod. Pimsleur is an excellent complement to my book learning, and it has really sharpened my pronunciation, I think. Furthermore, I believe the regular exercise contributes to my mental fitness, which has helped my acquisition and retention of the language.
My wife says my weight is down, too, and I’m feeling pretty invincible. Theoretically invincible, that is. My longest training run so far has been 16 miles, and after something like that, I feel physically crippled for a few hours, but the idea that I can run 16 miles (albeit slowly) makes me feel — mentally, emotionally, egotistically — like a dang superhero.