Marathons and stuff

I was reading my wife's blog and was reminded we saw a movie last night. It was pretty good. The movie is a documentary of sorts about six different people and their preparation and completion of the Chicago Marathon in 2005. Some notably funny parts:

The almost-my-speed guy who is trying to qualify for Boston is talking with some friends and he complains that "The qualifying times for Boston are totally skewed towards women and older people." As he says this, you can see his wife (who already qualified) give him a look. Even I wanted to smack the guy.

That same guy describes lists reasons why Chicago is such a popular marathon: "... it's in October so it's usually pretty cool." This year at least one person died, many were hospitalized, and they had to shut down the course due to water-shortages caused by the oppressive heat.

Altogether though, it was good. There were old people, babies, an elite man and woman in the coverage, so it was pretty balanced.

The reason I posted this though was because I came up with a good way to describe what it's like to run a marathon. Every training run you do is like putting money in the bank. In fact, I've had a few coaches call workouts "putting money in the bank". And when you have a marathon, it's a big withdrawal.

So, so me, training for a marathon is like saving up for a big purchase (like a car). And not just because you put money in the bank, but you hope what you bought is something good. My first marathon went horribly. Kind of like saving up for a BMW, only to find out that it was actually a rusted out Datsun. So on my second marathon, where things actually went as planned, it was so awesome to save up for my BMW, go to the BMW dealer, and actually drive home in a BMW.

Side note: It is physically hard for me to type BMW. Every single time I type BMX first, and then fix it. I miss my BMX bike. :(