This is my first post on letsrun, I'm probably going to get flamed for it, but I knew it going in so here goes...
Two years ago I moved to a place that was at the 18 mile mark of the big-city-marathon. I didn't know what marathons were (I mean I had heard of them but, like most people, I just thought marathon meant any distance race). As I woke up that morning, I saw people flying by and wondered what the deal is. I did some research on exactly what was going on and thought it was pretty cool.
I decided I wanted to run one. Problem is, I was a computer hacker who mainlined mountain dew and cheetos 24/7 and I was really, really, really fat and had never exercised.
Two years later and 200 lbs lighter (but still borderline obese), I ran it and clocked a time at twice of what most of you guys PRs are (or at least what you claim your PRs are). And yeah, I took a few walk breaks.
At the end I didn't really feel like an athlete or a hero. Just that I had completed an arbitrary goal that I had set for myself, and I was more happy about the weight loss and blood pressure, cholo, resting heart rate changes that came with the training than the actual marathon itself.
I did love training for and running the marathon. But I think the whole "wear the medal for a week, 26.2 RESPECT THE DISTANCE bumper sticker" crowd is ridiculous.
I am going to be running a BQ attempt right after my buttf**k 5k PR hits <20. That's going to be quite a while. Until then, I'll leave my marathon interest to posting messages on internet forums.
My stance is that I feel like the slow marathon is lame and pointless now. But it got me to get started dieting, walking, and running. I think that it had a net-positive effect.
Wonder how Letsrun will deal with someone admitting that they are fat and slow :)