“Hey Tina, what if we run a marathon?”
I stopped munching on my chocolate chip cookie, and looked up at Ben, startled, confused. “Let’s do it.” I said. And that was the beginning.
My friend Ben Chen and I decided to sign up for the “Virtual” Boston Marathon this past Spring. We had both done a fair amount of cross country meets, track workouts, and charity 5Ks, but 26.2 miles seemed like a daunting feat; the most I had ever run had been ten miles.
I emailed coach Katie for advice on how to best prepare for the marathon. Once she got back to us with an incredible 16-week training plan, Ben and I were destined to spend our Freshman Summer intensely tracking mileage, carb-loading, and perfecting the art of zone 2 training. Fun. He would be in San Diego and I would be in Florida, but we planned on keeping up with each other, encouraging each other, and checking in to monitor our progress.
After a few months, it was time to run. I decided to run the marathon in San Francisco, since I took an off term to intern at a company there. If I’m being completely honest, I was so busy at work during the last few weeks of training, that I found it difficult to strictly adhere to the training plan. So, when the weekend of October 9th rolled around, I felt a bit underprepared. Still, though, my goal was simple: to finish and to enjoy.
And so, I woke up the morning of October 9th, made myself some peanut butter toast, drank a ton of water, and began my run. My friend Annaliese (a ’23) was super helpful and made me a 26.2-mile-long route that would take me around the most beautiful parts of San Francisco (the best part to explore a city is by running!). I first ran from my apartment to the beach (first segment, ~6 miles), then I headed north till Presidio Heights (very hilly, ouch), across the Golden Gate Bridge (more noisy than pleasant; mucho tráfico), east to Crissy Field, the Marina District, and finally ended up in Embarcadero (very touristy area). I think being able to explore San Francisco was the best part of my marathon experience. To make it even more exciting, that weekend was also Fleet Week, which featured the iconic Blue Angel plane show to honor those who served in our armed forces. Therefore, the city was vibrant with thousands of people, both visitors and residents, that had flocked to Marina Green Park to watch the Blue Angels perform. As I ran through the Fleet Week spectators, I felt the energy of SF, the breeze, and the sunshine strengthen me. I was almost done.
When I reached the end, I met Annaliese at the SF Aquarium (near Embarcadero). She was surprised that I wasn’t even breathing heavily nor sweating profusely. So maybe I didn’t look super tired, but oh boy, my legs felt like noodles. That leads me to my next point: I need to start lifting more. Whether I end up doing another marathon or not is unclear right now, but I realized that in the midst of my intense running training, I overlooked strength training! Not a good choice on my end. All in all, though, while the marathon was far from easy, I am happy I did it. After much training, very sore legs, lots of peanut butter and protein bars, and time spent curating a Spotify playlist, I felt triumph and satisfaction in knowing that what began as a perhaps impulsive “Let’s do it,” became a memorable accomplishment. If you’re reading this and wondering if you should run a marathon, the answer is YES! Start slow, build up speed and strength, and have fun with it! You never know if you don’t try.
About the Author
Tina is a ’24 at Dartmouth from Puerto Rico. She now lives in Florida with her family, and in her free time enjoys cooking, roller blading, and discovering new music. She is a bio + French double major, and in addition to Tri is involved with the Collis student center, the dartmouth undergraduate journal of science, and research at the Geisel School of Medicine.
