A while ago — we lived in LA, I know that much, and we had Sophia, at least — I picked up a running or sports magazine and opened it to a big article on the Berlin Marathon.
Berlin.
Marathon.
My immediate reaction was Oh yeah, I wanna do that.
I haven’t been back to Berlin since I was there in 1986. I’ve kept saying I want to go back, but it was always easy to put off, and then I got together with Darin, who is not particularly comfortable with countries where he doesn’t speak the language.
At the time I read the article, I hadn’t gotten back into running. The idea of running a marathon seemed completely ludicrous. And yet…
Running a marathon isn’t completely ludicrous any more. (In fact, as Rob puts it, “We could probably run one right now, just on sheer orneriness.”) My running buds, Rob and Nina, are not that into the idea — continue running for four (errr…five…maybe five and a half hours)? So I’m in it on my own. Although Nina wouldn’t mind going on the training runs with me. And Rob wants to do at least one 30K (18.6 miles) trail run. And it’s really cool to go on these runs where a lot of participants are doing 50K (31 miles) runs up gigantic hills and without getting a medal when they pass the finish lines.
And then, one of my favorite bloggers, the Born Again Gym Bunny, has decided to do a marathon. Three guesses as to which one she’s doing.
It’s a sign, I tell you.
Except schlepping the entire family halfway around the world so that I can run around the streets of Berlin seems just a teensy bit crazed. (Not to mention: expensive.) And the idea of going to Berlin by myself… well, I couldn’t be there for particularly long, because I can’t leave Darin with the kids for too long unless he takes off of work.
Maybe it’s just a completely crazy idea and I should just do something simple, like the LA Marathon. (True, with all this hill running, I should be up for the SF Marathon, but… no.) But I want to do a marathon this year. This is the year that the odometer rolls over and my warranty expires. This is my version of giant party.
Evidently they close the registration for the marathon in August, unless it fills up before then. So I guess I have a while to decide and work out the logistics.
I just can’t talk you out of this, eh?
If you do Berlin, I’ll do it with you.
Ask grandpa, he would love to take care of Simon and Sophia, and he would be really good at it!!!!!!
hehe i think all this marathon talk is working on both Rob and I =) I’m starting to think it wouldn’t be entirely crazy.