"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it." - Robin Williams

I said in my initial post that this blog would be a little bit about everything - and that included fitness.  I haven't spent a whole lot of time writing about my workouts, because let's be honest, food is more fun!  There are many days when I choose dinner over a planned workout.  I threw that little Daily Mile icon on the side of my page and thought that would be sufficient here.

But the truth is, running is a pretty big part of my life.  At least now it is.  Until just over two years ago, I hated running.  If I was working out, it was on the elliptical at the gym.  And I went through cycles. Gain some weight, start working out for a month.  Lose the weight, stop working out for a month.  Repeat.  The motivation to stick with it just wasn't there.

And then I was relocated to Michigan for work.  From January 5th until June 30th 2009 I was stationed at a military base with nothing to do but work.  When the weather began to turn a little warmer, another woman that was stationed with me and just as desperate for a reprieve from the monotony, asked if I wanted to start running around the base with her.  Her husband had just finished the Boston Marathon and when she was watching the race, she said it was the most motivational thing she'd ever seen in her life.  She wanted to start training for a marathon herself and wanted me to do it with her.

I told her that there was absolutely no way that I was going to run a marathon, nor did I have any desire to, but I would start running with her. And so it began.  Before I knew it, I could run 3 miles with no walking.  Then it was 6.  And the 9 mile loop around the base?  That became a normal run for me.  I remember each time that I increased my mileage and how incredibly accomplished it made me feel.  By the time I left Michigan, my longest run was a 12-miler.  Shortly after that at a family reunion in New Jersey I ran my first 13.1.

It was on that trip that I decided that I needed to sign up for a marathon.  It had been in the back of my head, but I just couldn't pull the trigger.  That would mean I was actually committing to something and that this training was for real!  I finally decided that the Marine Corps Marathon was the one I wanted to run, but after looking into it (in July for an October race), I found out that it was full.  Secretly a little relieved, I sort of put it out of my head.  Not long after that, I saw a post on facebook from a girl I knew that was signed up to run MCM but wasn't going to be able to make it to the race and wanted to know if someone wanted her spot.  Without thinking, I jumped on it and had myself a bib number!

Because I was so nervous for the race, I trained and trained and trained.  To this day, 4 marathons and a 20-miler later, I've never felt that good after a race or beat that time.  I am fortunate to have had a great first-marathon experience, because it made me want to run even more.  I even convinced my boyfriend to start running with me and he's a marathoner now too.

Our marathon medals

Since then, I have lost a lot of that "puppy love" for running.  I don't like talking about it as much, I need much more motivation to get up and go (there was a time when a new pair of socks got me moving!), and I've already run each training distance, so the new-ness has worn off.  Don't get me wrong.  I still enjoy running, but I think it's more how it makes me feel afterwards (I've never been in better shape in my life) rather than the excitement of the actual run.

So bottom line - I need something new.  And here comes the quote in the title of the post.


"You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it."

Like I said, after my first marathon I felt fantastic.  I could have kept running, no question.  At that time, I remember thinking, maybe I will run a longer race one day because this wasn't so bad!  I've sort of kept that idea in the back of my mind, but haven't made a move on it.  Now that B has caught the running bug, he's started bringing up the idea as well.

After searching online for available 50K (31 mile) races in the late fall/early winter timeframe and coming up with no good options (too far away, too mountainous, etc), B suggested that we start our own.  The more we talk about it, the more I like it.  We have the entire beach path from Pacific Palisades to Redondo Beach (19 miles one way!) at our disposal, conveniently studded with water fountains at least every 2 miles.  Of course this would take some more planning (and a lot more training), but we wanted to throw the idea out there to our friends and see if anyone would be interested in participating.

There must be more people around Southern California than just the two of us who want to run a race like this.  In fact, I know there are because I run past a guy all the time who will be running Badwater this year - 135 miles, Death Valley, 282 ft below sea level start, 8360 ft elevation finish.... now THAT guy is crazy.

And we look sane by comparison.... right?

So who wants to keep their spark of madness alive??