I just received an alert that there are 168 days until the Pittsburgh Marathon. I’ll be honest: My heart fluttered a little bit.
My reactions are getting less intense, though. For example, it’s been about a month since I’ve had a visible reaction to the words Pittsburgh or marathon. My friend Alyssa predicted that my nerves/excitement levels would be sort of a reverse bell curve: pretty intense nerves at the beginning (right when I signed up) and toward the end of training (as my first 26.2-mile race looms) but fairly level marathon-related emotions in between.
And that in-between time is where I am right now. I’m in a weird/tricky phase between the Hershey Half Marathon, which was on Oct. 19, and the start of marathon training, which will begin the last week of December or first week of January. Basically, I have to maintain a balance of recovery from Hershey, maintenance of my running fitness level (so I’m not starting from scratch when training begins), and avoidance of burnout (because I don’t want to push myself so hard now that I’m exhausted and sick of running eight weeks into my 18-week marathon training program). I’ve never done this maintenance-while-not-burning-out thing before, so I’m just playing it by ear and listening to my body. So far, so good.
So. I have 168 days until I see this sign again…
…and run on the other side of it this time (I’ve run the Pittsburgh Half Marathon twice, for anyone who didn’t know).
And I have about a month and a half until marathon training begins to take over my life. At least, I’ve heard that training can completely take over everything:
-time: waking up at 4 a.m. to knock out a mid-length run before work on a weekday
-schedules: like, “Oh, sorry, I can’t hang out Friday night. I have a long run on Saturday morning.”
-and even conversations. Especially conversations where running isn’t even being brought up…except by a runner who’s in the middle of training. (Believe me, I’ve never run a marathon, but I can talk about running a bit excessively!)
I’m fully prepared (as much as I can be, anyway) for training to take over those first two categories, but I really want to avoid talking people’s ears off about my marathon preparation. After all, I’m going to be training for this race for 18 long weeks, and most people will probably be completely sick of me by halfway through Week 2 if I let myself talk about “marathon this, marathon that” or “I did this training or that training.”
But fear not! I have a solution.
Enter the I Said Marathon Punishment Jar!
The solution!
Yes, this jar is (I hope) the answer to the potential problem of the verbalization of my marathon- and training-focused thoughts. Basically, every time I say the words marathon or training until the Pittsburgh Marathon (May 3, 2015), I will put a quarter in the jar. As you might be able to tell from that picture, I already have a few dollars in there.
Some rules/exceptions:
-It has to be an actual verbalization. I can write the words marathon and training if I want, but I can’t speak them around other people.
-The ONLY exception is if someone specifically asks me about the subject. Then I’m allowed to say the banned words. Why? Well, the purpose of the Punishment Jar is to prevent marathon talk from overtaking every conversation. But if someone wants to hear about it, I’m allowed to talk about it. (Also, how annoying would it be to have a marathon-related conversation with me during which I awkwardly try to come up with marathon/training synonyms so I can avoid saying the actual words? “Yes, the preparation for the 26.2-mile excursion is going well…”)
-The exception to the exception is if I go on and on and on after someone asks me about marathon training. Trust me, I’ll know when and if this happens. If I’m supplying every detail of a 5-mile mid-week training run, for example, I owe the jar a quarter.
-If you know me and if you happen to notice that I violate one of these rules, call me out on it! Even if you ask me about training and, 10 minutes later, I’m still droning on and on in a less-than-thrilling monologue, just say, “Hey, dude, put a quarter in that jar.”
-Not a rule (more of an alert): I will have to be cautious about using substitute words, like saying Pittsburgh instead of marathon, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
This isn’t supposed to be intense and legalistic; it’s just supposed to be a fun way for me to be aware of just how much I talk about the marathon. Yes, marathon training will, in all likelihood, take over my life this winter and spring. But that doesn’t mean I have to make it take over everyone else’s lives, too!
I’m looking forward to seeing how this Punishment Jar works out, even though I’m not sure where the collected money will go yet (I have 168 days to figure that out). Things will get really interesting after training actually starts, when I’ll actually have reasons to blurt out marathon- and training-related news at random moments. But I’m always up for a challenge, so bring it on!
View #1 (just to prove I’m not a crafter; I’m just a runner looking to get rid of my money every time I say the banned words)
View #2 (slight rotation)
View #3
Operation Life 