It's not a sprint - it's a marathon (or a half)

I signed up today to do something that I couldn't have kept a straight face at the mere suggestion of doing previously - to train to walk a marathon.


The woman who runs the Basic Training class I take at work, Lerual (not her real name), is relentlessly perky and enthusiastic about all things related to physical fitness. Nine years ago or so, she and a couple others started San Jose Fit, a chapter of USA Fit. San Jose Fit's goal is to take normal people, and over the course of the summer, gradually get them to the point where they could seriously consider running or walking in a half or full marathon.

They (oh wow, it's now "We") meet at Los Gatos High School on Saturday mornings, have a little presentation about fitness-related things (like how to buy shoes, keep yourself hydrated, and avoid stepping in disgusting things that are really hard to scrape off your shoes), and then head out on progressively longer runs/walks. You are also given homework to do during the week, like walk for 30 minutes on Monday or spend an hour on Wednesday making fun of bike riders.

I mentioned this program to Mrs Notthat, and she was interested until I explained that the start time was 7:30 AM on Saturday mornings. This was a massive deal-breaker. When I left this morning, Idiot Dog Teddy could tell I was cheating on him, and did not take it well. Theoretically you can bring your dog along, but IDT would make for a very challenging walk, and not just for me. I promised him that he would still get his walk once I got back, but he still laid a massive guilt trip on me.

Next Saturday is our first real session where I will get a better feel for how many people are participating in this, but I suspect it is a lot more than I would have guessed. Like hundreds of people. One of the perks is that you get a technical shirt. (No, I don't know exactly what makes a shirt technical - maybe it knows how to write shirt-based software.)


Look at this picture - the guy on the right is wearing the shirt from a previous year. The guy on the left is wearing the light blue version for this year. The more observant of you can probably figure out the problem with the light blue one (other than it not being black). So the shirts are being reprinted and we will get ours once they are ready.

In any case, I'm determined to see this thing through. I still need to get my knee repaired a bit, but I'm pretty sure that, even as it is, I could manage this process fairly well. I also have the bonus of seeing Lerual twice during the week and will benefit from her perky pep talks.

I suspect she could sell surfboards to farmers in Kansas.

That's it - move along...

PS: The logo on the back of the shirts are supposed to be the word "Whining" with a circle-slash over it. The new shirts have the words "No Whining" with a circle-slash, which is a double-negative, and means that whining would be encouraged. I suspect we would get banned from the trails with the amount of whining we could generate. Or at least me.