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May 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Why I Run Full and Half Marathons…

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Tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up at about 5am to make it ontime to the Frederick Running Festival where I plan to run a half marathon –which is 13.1 miles.
When I started this blog, nearly a year ago to the day, myvery first post was about the completion of my third full marathon. Since then,I’ve completed two more full and several halves.
Often times, friends and family say they understand mydesire to run a few miles – but they completely don’t get the rationale behindrunning 26.2 miles or even half that distance. They think it’s crazy.
Maybe it is.
While I originally started running to reap the benefits formy physical health, I recently came across an article that nicely articulatesthe mental health benefits running provides – so maybe I’m not crazy after all.
The excerpt below was originally published in the spring2011 issue of The Trail magazine, a supplement publication I get from Runner’sWorld.  The article was written byShannon Farar-Griefer, 49, who is a mother of three kids and started running in1997.  Since then she has completed 25ULTRAMARATHONS – which is running 100 miles straight through.
Now to me – running 100 miles is crazy.  So I thought it might be worth reading herjustification for such supreme lunacy. Here’s the article in full.

“Running 100 miles isabout the challenge of pushing your body and mind to places where someone who’snot a runner – and maybe even a marathoner- might thing unimaginable. It’s notabout running all-out fast, like you might do in the other races; it’s aboutfinding a consistent pace that makes sense for the terrain and keeping yourlegs moving , no matter how much they might want to stop. To me, it’s like ametaphor for life. You’ve got to take the bad with the good, because there aretimes you are going to hurt and feel horrible out there. It’s going to hurt –just like hitting the wall in the marathon, but in a 100-miler that hurt mightlast for two hours or four hours or 10 hours.



At times, everythinghurts, and you feel heavy and slow – your legs, your body and your brain. Butthat’s part of the challenge. It’s about having the passion to do it, makingthe commitment to train, and getting through all of those obstacles in therace. And that’s what life is all about. It’s a huge relief when you finish a100-miler, but it’s also kind of sad because the incredible journey you justwent through to get to that point is over. The point where you’reabout five miles away and can ‘smell’ the finish line is almost better than theactual finish line itself.  You want thatfeeling to last forever, so you start thinking about your next race. A lot of runnersremember their times – but I don’t keep track of that stuff or even the numberof finishes.
 I just look at it likea blessing in life that I’m able to go out and run 100 miles.”~ShannonFarar-Griefer, Ultramarathon Runner, 2011 The Trail Magazine, Rodale

I can relate to that.
There are so many people who are bed-ridden or unable towalk – it is truly a blessing to completely engage that ability to the fullest.And when that God-given ability to move is married to a purpose, such ascompleting a race of any duration, something special happens akin to whatGriefer eloquently explained above.
However, running 100 miles straight is STILL crazy…..
Filed Under: Fitness