A marathon is like a Judd Apatow movie, starts out strong, and 3 hours later you can’t believe you’re only half way through.”
-Daniel Tosh
Have you watched the video above? If not, just watch his opening monologue. I promise you’ll laugh. I did. And I actually like running.
Okay, so back to Tosh. He’s a funny guy, right? He’s also pretty spot on with his marathon jokes. 26.2 miles really takes it’s toll on your body before, during and after. It’s been 4 months since the LA Marathon and I’m still applying Mederma to lighten the battle scars on my chest.
That other stuff Tosh talks about? Lost toenails and hitting the wall? Well, I haven’t experienced those things yet. Maybe it’ll come after the Long Beach Marathon in October.
I have 12 weeks of training left for Long Beach. The first six weeks have been pretty easy and uneventful. I didn’t really have to increase my mileage from before. I took a few days off while in Yosemite, but other than that I’ve been sticking with the plan[1]. Once again, I went with a free-to-me Active.com training plan. I chose the intermediate plan this time around. Like last time, most of my mid-week runs are under an hour. I know most training plans have a long-ish run midweek, but I like keeping my workout to an hour or so on weekdays. If I’m missing some great benefit of a 10-mile run on Wednesday, let me know.
I know training will become more difficult as my long run mileage increases. I skipped ahead a few weeks and did 17 miles on Sunday with some friends. My legs felt okay, but I had to stop more than I would have liked and had to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated on a warm and sunny morning.
I’m excited about marathon #2. I’m happy to go back to the flat, seaside Long Beach course where I ran my first half marathon. The course has almost no hills much different than LA with some significant uphill and downhill climbs. I’m not averse to hills, but I really don’t want to climb one at mile 18.
I know I can complete a marathon, so the goal for Long Beach won’t be simply to cross the finish line in tact. There will definitely be a time goal, but I’m unsure what that will be aside from improving upon my LA Marathon time.
Lotería Chicana 
Good luck in your training! I just started mine for the Santa Barbara Marathon a month after yours!
Tosh.o is hilarious. I’m not a big tv fan, but if I was, I would watch all of his shows!
ay Cindylu. I came to your site today for inspiration. And I got it. I’m starting back up for the umpteenth time, training and weightloss. Just typing the word “weight loss” is difficult for me to do. I’m hoping I’ll be back up to marathon distances by December. Thank you for writing about your racing battles so honestly “I’m still applying Mederma to lighten the battle scars on my chest.”
ohh btw I used the Active.com free training plan but didn’t like it so much because I was bad about following things that weren’t just distance runs (temp, hills etc). Are you able to force yourself to train like that?