What Better Motivation then a Marathon?

Ironman has come and gone and the past 3 months have been filled with TV, potato chips and some world class weight gain (almost 30 pounds to be exact!). As big as a life accomplishment that Ironman was it left a really bitter taste in my mouth. As the day got closer I resented the training more and more. I hated the weekends I had to spend on the bike rather then the beach, I hated the constant pain that injury brought and I hated that I was beginning to hate exercise all together. Looking back in our blog we both seemed to be so sick of everything triathlon related we didn't even make a post about finishing Ironman. We both finished with a smile on our faces if you are wondering.

After Ironman I made some attempts to get back into the swing of things but I was just kidding myself. Every time that I thought about exercise I couldn't help but have a flood of negative thoughts come pouring into my mind. So I continued to sit there on the couch in front of the TV letting my waist line get bigger and bigger. I decided that what I need is to ditch the negative emotions that exercise stir up and bring back that amazing feeling of runners high into my life. I need to make working out fun again.

Running was always my favorite. There is something magical about the simplicity of it all. All you need is a pair of shoes and the will to get out the door. So I have decided that 2008 will be a year of running for me. I don't particularly like swimming so I'm just not going to do it for a while. I enjoy biking but every time I think about getting on the bike I'm reminded of the long terrible 8 hour rides of last summer. Next summer I'm going to focus on what I love to do and just leave out the bad stuff. I'll swim when it sounds like fun and not because I have a race looming and I'll get in a long ride when the sun is shining and I can take my time. I need this to be fun again because I don't like where this path on the couch is taking me.

So knowing that running is where I want to focus my time and needing a little extra push to get out the door I've decided to sign up for the Vancouver Marathon on May 4th. I'm actually quite excited. I'm ditching all the time goals for now and I'm just going to run and have a fun race. If all goes well I might get a little more serious and train for the Victoria Marathon in October, but really I have lots of time to figure that out. For now it's time to reverse the weight gain, get my shoes back on my feet and get my ass out the door!