Don’t get me wrong, marathon training certainly has its perks.  It’s forcing me to eat a little healthier, go to bed earlier, and to be more regimented and disciplined, which is spilling over into my real life.  Plus, people seem to be, overall, pretty positive about the adventure I’m taking with this marathon, and have been wishing me luck both left and right.  I’ve been far better about budgeting, cleaning, and crosstraining, but its also served to take my inner nutjob and magnify it by 1000.  I’ve never run a marathon, but is this normal?  It can’t be, right?  The following are examples of how training for this marathon is turning me into a nut.

1.  I’m constantly hungry.  In my regular life, Cheri + hungry is a terrible combination.  When my blood sugar plummets, so does everyone’s fun, and all I can do is fantasize about slapping or saying really mean things to those around me.  Because of this, I’ve adopted the concept of second lunch.  I split my lunch in half, and eat second lunch around 3 or 4.  That way, my blood sugar is never too low, and no ones life is in danger when I become too hungry to be around.

2. Toward the end of my long runs, I’ve literally started talking myself through the final like tenth of a mile or so.  I’ve been “WOOING” as well.  Additionally, I actually did a victory dance after yesterday’s seventeen. I stopped when I realized it could be viewed as insane by passers-by.  As I entered my apartment, I kept dancing until I felt that it was time to stretch.

3.  I’m a little more anxious than usual.  And that’s not cool at all.  What am I anxious about?  Oh snap, time for another indentation, this one gets its own sublist.

• My hair is looking a little jankier than usual.  Which is cool, I wear it natural.  But I’m running SO much, I haven’t had as much free time to twist it.  What if people think I look awful and unkempt?
• I fainted in class two Saturdays ago due to a nasty cold I caught.  Now I am frightened that I will faint again (possibly during the marathon) and it is scaring the heck out of me.  Also, I don’t want to be fainting girl.  I just do not want to be known as sickly girl who faints all over the place!
•  That my family/coworkers are sick and tired of hearing about this marathon.  Am I talking about it too much?
• That I will lose a finger when my fingers get all Raynaudsey and I will be down a digit or two.
• That I won’t be able to finish the marathon, and I will be thrown into the marathon paddy wagon and bring shame to my family.
• And finally, that I’m doing my training all wrong.

Lucky for me, I work with a boatload of folks who have done this already, and my dear buddy Jerry directed me to this website which sort of eased my mind.

You guys heard of this?  McMillan Running Calculator dohickey?

As I was thisclose to having a full-blown marathon-related meltdown at work, Jerry directed me to this site.  You put your 1/2 Marathon time in, and it calculates from that a reasonable estimate of where your pace should be, and where you should be as for as your miles times and such.  Jerry and Co. looked it over and remarked that I was right where I should be!  ::sigh:: Okay.

I recognize that my marathon-related fears are unreasonable and relatively non-issue-like.  And it certainly doesn’t help that I probably haven’t slept a full night since I graduated in 2011 (that’s another story for another day, lemme tell you what).  Taking that into consideration, I am going to do like they used to tell us in the early mornings during Residence Life training and choose my attitude.  Tomorrow, I’m going to choose to view this stuff as insane and unreasonable as it is, and not allow these ridiculous thoughts to creep in and sabatoge my marathon.  I certainly didn’t invest all this time, money, and effort, to let my fear that I haven’t packed enough for lunch, for example, ruin the great weekend we’re gonna have in Virginia Beach in a little over a month!