To run or not to run, that is the question...

...whether it is silly in body to suffer the pains and twinges of outrageous distance, or by training, end them.

My friend, Hamlet.

Joy here...Okay, maybe paraphrasing Hamlet's famous soliloquy to suggest that it's really about whether or not Nomi and I should try and train for a full marathon is, perhaps, a bit cheap.  But, hey, I'm an English professor...you've got expect an allusion thrown in every now and then, right?

What I'm referring to in today's blog entry is Nomi's entry about training for a full marathon.  You see, since arriving in Malaysia, I've been trying to convince Nomi to train for a full marathon this year.  We never thought that we could ever run 10kms, and now we've each got two 21km half marathons under our belts.  So is a full marathon really all that out of reach?

Let me tell you something, we've decided that it is, in fact, within our reach, and so we're gonna do it!  Armed with some guide books for how to train, a positive attitude, and this blog to keep us on track, we're going to turn our group attention to a fall marathon.  I will aim for the same weekend in October as my first half marathon, and Nomi will aim for the same weekend in November as her half marathon.  There's a kind of beautiful symmetry to all this.  We ran our first ever race one year ago in Singapore, and then ran at that event 12 months later, completing half marathons.  Now, we ran our first ever half marathons in October and November 2010, and wouldn't it be sweet to finish our first ever full marathons in October and November 2011?

So take today's declaration as my commitment to train for a full marathon over the summer and run it in the fall!  I'm throwing my hat over the fence once again!

...

Maybe.

Um, I think so???

...

Maybe I should just focus on the present for now and not on the marathon.

Yet.

So focusing on the "now," today, Nomi and I went for an easy run in the garden where she is loathe to run by herself at 5:30am in the dark.  I was supposed to go for a bike ride, but that was cancelled so at 5ish in the morning, I sent an emergency text to Nomi to see if she was up for a run...and my trusty partner in crime was more than ready.  So off we went...

A view of the park where we run in the wee hours of the morning.

...The sun was rising as we began our hot, humid run, but there was cloud cover and the promise of showers, and so I didn't have to suffer the tropical rays of the sun.  We took it easy and did about 5 loops of the 3km route around the park, and I tried to make each successive route just a little bit faster.  So while I started running at around 6:30min/km, I finished my final loop running around 5:35min/km.

Then I bought water.

Then I drank it in one gulp.

Then I was done with running for the day.

Nomi and I drove our sweaty selves back home to get on with our Sundays, feeling accomplished and happy that we can have an easy peasy run with each other on a Sunday morning through a green and beautiful park.

My run stats for today are:
Ran for a total of 1:10:11 for a distance of 11.5kms with an average pace of 6:02min/km.

Over and out,
Joy