After my first marathon I was pumped. I couldn't wait to run another. I definitely did not have that "One and Done" mentality. I had spent a solid six months training and dropped around 40 lbs. before that first marathon. It was easy to be disciplined during the Summer and Fall, but I found I struggled during the Winter and early Spring.
During the Summer and Fall at college I worked at a party rental shop, Meredith Party Rentals. This was great for burning extra calories. It was a physical job that involved the unloading and loading of countless trucks, setting up party tents that ranged from a minuscule 10' x 10' tent all the way to the mammoth 60' x 180' festival tents, and setting up thousands of tables and chairs. This job, in conjunction with my running, allowed me to drop the 40 lbs. without really adjusting my eating habits.
My nights out were also limited due to the amount of hours I spent working and running. I would only go out on Saturday nights. This helped my diet a little but I still ate and drank whatever I wanted. I lost the weight and felt good at the marathon. I needed to carry this routine beyond the marathon and throughout the school year. Unfortunately I was in college and not quite as disciplined as I should have been. Consequently my healthy routine soon came to an end.
Not too long after the marathon, "Party Rental" season came to an end and I was done working until Spring. Without the extra physical labor of my job the amount of calories I burned per week suffered tremendously. I tried to keep up my running as much as possible. I still ran three times during the week and once on the weekend although the mileage was significantly less than when I was training for the marathon. I started to let bad college habits creep back in to my life though, and soon my weekend runs disappeared. I would go out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. I would take on way more carbs than my body knew what to do with and eat some of the worse foods out there. I started to gain some of my weight back.
As the days moved on and Winter swept over the area the weather began to turn cold. I tried getting out to run during the week, but dreaded the low temperatures. I didn't hate running in the cold so much as just getting out into the cold and starting. Once I start running for a little bit and warm up I don't even really notice the cold. I started talking myself out of runs because I knew I would be freezing for the first mile or so. The weight increased some more.
Before I knew it, it was late January and my running was nonexistent. I was tipping the scales at around 276 lbs. My blood pressure was back up and I felt like crap. I kept telling myself I needed to get back out there and run, but I didn't act on it until early March. The weather started to break and I forced myself to get back out and start running. It was rough getting back into shape, although not as rough as the first time when I had taken two years off from all physical activity and weighed 290. My cousin Mike called me around that time and said he really wanted to run the Chicago marathon that year. I told him I would do it and signed up for the race.
I trained for the rest of the Spring, Summer, and into the Fall. I was definitely not as disciplined as I was the previous year when I ran my first marathon. That year I limited my nights out to Saturdays only. This year I was going out on Thursday and Sunday nights on top of the Saturdays since I did not run on Mondays or Fridays. I was heavier than I should have been. The previous year I weighed around 245 lbs. for the marathon. This year I was sitting closer to 260 lbs.
The 2009 Chicago marathon was being held on October 11. Near the end of August I started to get a sharp pain in my lower left leg. It was on the inside of my shin very low nearing my ankle. At first I just thought I was sore from all of the training and ignored it. Eventually it got to the point where I could barely run on it. I have a very high pain tolerance and rarely complain about discomfort so I knew I was in trouble. I am sure the extra upper body weight I was carrying around that year was a contributing factor to the injury. I went to the doctor and had X-Rays taken. The doctor said she could not see a definitive fracture, but could see a weak spot in the bone. She said since she couldn't see a fracture and the race was only in five weeks that I could run on it if I wanted. She said if I could deal with the pain that I wouldn't cause any damage.
I tried to run some more, but I could not physically. It was very frustrating and I think at a certain point I threw in the mental towel as well. I told myself that Chicago was not going to happen and it didn't. I was not happy about it at all. As the school year went on I did not get back out to run during the cold weather as usual. I ate what I wanted and went out way more than I should have. Winter hibernation is what I would call it. I managed to make it all the way to March again without running.
I was determined not to let anything keep me from running another marathon in 2010. I knew I would have to get back to my slightly more disciplined 2008 ways. I made sure my only night out during the week was Saturday night. I also started watching my diet a little bit. The diet was not strict by any means, but I watched what I ate on weekdays and ate whatever I wanted on weekends. This helped me get to a lower maintainable weight faster. My cousin really wanted to run Chicago again so I told him I would run it. I wanted to run it mostly because I paid for it the year before and didn't get to race. I registered for the race, it was being held on October 10, 2010 or 10/10/10 (which being a nerd I thought was kind of cool).
I was feeling very confident that year and decided I wanted to run two marathons. I wanted to make up for the marathon I had missed the previous year. I also decided that if I was going to put in 6 months of training I should probably use it on more than one race. I signed up for the Columbus marathon. The date of the race was October 17, seven days after the Chicago marathon. My body has always recovered fast from physical activity so I knew I would be fine to run another 26 miles within seven days.
I had my races lined up and was ready to go. Before I knew it, it was October. I was back in marathon shape and ready to take on more miles in a week than I ever had in my entire life.
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