A conversation I’ve had too many times:
Them: “You’ve been running a lot lately.”
Me: “Yeah, I’m training for the Seattle Marathon.”
Them: “Wow! A marathon! When is it?”
Me: “November 30th, my birthday.”
Them: “That’s great! How long is the race?”
Me: (sigh) “Eleventy billion miles.”
Them: “Good thing you’re training.”
I know running marathons isn’t common, but knowing what they are should be. These are educated people I’m talking to. They should have at least heard about the battle in their grade-school western civ class.
Unfortunately, this post finds me pleading ignorance on one facet of the marathon: Seattle’s hilly race course. I knew there would be some uphill running, but I talked to a coworker who is running the Sacramento marathon and she made it sound almost unreasonable.
Before I signed up for the race last month, I checked out the course elevation map and it looked manageable. I’m going to be running so slow, it shouldn’t matter. And while the coworker I spoke with is an experienced marathon runner, she is also twice my age.
I am currently healthy and have not yet begun to suffer from problems of the aged, such as osteoperosis, menopause, collecting garbage, driving too slow, and the everpopular diabeetus, so I’m hoping I’ll be okay.
