Does it seem like all of YOUR friends are training for marathons too? While part of me is proud to call these people friends, a bigger part of me thinks they’ve lost their minds. Running 26 miles in one stretch, without ever having done it before? What on Earth could the motivation be? And that’s really the part of this marathon thing that intrigues me. Most of my newbie marathon-ing friends go from sedentary slouches to road runners with absolutely no warning.

But why do they do it? I guess I wouldn’t mind being able to say I’d finished a marathon, and I surely wouldn’t mind the weight that no doubt would fall off during training. But it’s hard for me to fathom, as I sit here in my cozy bed typing away at record speed, actually committing the time, energy and pain (no doubt) that a marathon would require.

It seems like every periodical I pick up these days is screaming “marathon” this and “marathon” that – clearly implying that lightning speed should extend well beyond one’s typing skills. There are tips for the novice runner and a step-by-step guide from Parade magazine (click here for that), a complete schedule of all the marathons in the country this season (click here), and a front-page story from The New York Times debating whether “plodders” have a place in a marathon (click here for that).

It’s actually the New York Times piece that interests me most. It seems that many of the marathoners don’t actually run the 26.2 miles. They alternate running and walking, say, every-other mile, finishing the race several hours behind the more fleet-footed athletes. Last year 425,000 people in this country finished marathons – and some of them stopped off for lunch in the middle of their six-hour race! Now that’s a marathon I can contemplate. Perhaps I will start by working my way up to jogging around the block.