Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Marathon Yearnings
I have been thinking alot about walking a marathon lately. I ran across a walking website the other day that had a feature on walker friendly marathons. I have done a couple of long walks already. Last summer I did a 27 mile walk, five miles up the old BN tracks to the continental divide, nine miles along a new section of the CDT and back down the old highway. That took about 8 hours, the last two or so in the rain. Then a year and 1/2 ago I walked from Butte to Whitehall on a whim one Saturday, a month later I followed the old Milwaukee line from Tech through Durant Canyon and then the BAP line over smelter hill and into Anaconda. Whitehall was about 21 miles in 7 hours and the Anaconda jaunt was 24 and took 8 hours.
But an actual marathon offers something else. Not really par with running, but an achievment that with a shirt and printed results. Also, there are some great venues out there, the Deadwood Marathon on the Mickelson Trail in SD, the Niagara Marathon from Buffalo to the falls (my mom used to ride her bike along that route as a young girl), the Big Sur marathon and maybe the Baatan Death March Marathon in New Mexico. Maybe once I get this marathon thing out of my system, I will settle for half-marathons. 13 miles seems a lot easier. But first, I must engage in an 18 -24 week training schedule to prepare for the big walk. Setting a finish time and pacing myself for it will be good discipline. It is also a way to focus on better weather to come in this time of winter bleakness, although I did get my first X-country ski outing in for the new year. Fast Snow! and Visions of a Fast Walk come spring! Probably Deadwood will be first as I can do the Volksmarch to Crazy Horse the day before. If a another challenge is needed there is always the 50 km Bridger Run south of Bozeman. This is time limited "run" and involves a lot of altitude gain and loss.
I have been thinking alot about walking a marathon lately. I ran across a walking website the other day that had a feature on walker friendly marathons. I have done a couple of long walks already. Last summer I did a 27 mile walk, five miles up the old BN tracks to the continental divide, nine miles along a new section of the CDT and back down the old highway. That took about 8 hours, the last two or so in the rain. Then a year and 1/2 ago I walked from Butte to Whitehall on a whim one Saturday, a month later I followed the old Milwaukee line from Tech through Durant Canyon and then the BAP line over smelter hill and into Anaconda. Whitehall was about 21 miles in 7 hours and the Anaconda jaunt was 24 and took 8 hours.
But an actual marathon offers something else. Not really par with running, but an achievment that with a shirt and printed results. Also, there are some great venues out there, the Deadwood Marathon on the Mickelson Trail in SD, the Niagara Marathon from Buffalo to the falls (my mom used to ride her bike along that route as a young girl), the Big Sur marathon and maybe the Baatan Death March Marathon in New Mexico. Maybe once I get this marathon thing out of my system, I will settle for half-marathons. 13 miles seems a lot easier. But first, I must engage in an 18 -24 week training schedule to prepare for the big walk. Setting a finish time and pacing myself for it will be good discipline. It is also a way to focus on better weather to come in this time of winter bleakness, although I did get my first X-country ski outing in for the new year. Fast Snow! and Visions of a Fast Walk come spring! Probably Deadwood will be first as I can do the Volksmarch to Crazy Horse the day before. If a another challenge is needed there is always the 50 km Bridger Run south of Bozeman. This is time limited "run" and involves a lot of altitude gain and loss.
