Diet & Weight Magazine

Marathon Update: Ch…Ch…Changes

By Danceswithfat @danceswithfat
26.2 miles  Marathon  It was all worth it in the end!

Looks like it will be a while longer until I get my next one!

So in October I logged onto the LA Marathon site to register for the marathon and I noticed that the website had changed. Most importantly to me, the sentence that started “Participants who cross the finish line after…” had changed.

When I decided to enter the LA Marathon that sentence had read “Participants who cross the finish line after 8:00:00 are not guaranteed to be recognized as Official Finishers and are not guaranteed a medal or finishing time.”

The sentence as it appeared that morning in October read “Participants who cross the finish line after 6:30:00 are not guaranteed to be recognized as Official Finishers and are not guaranteed a medal or finishing time.”

I had set a goal to finish the LA Marathon in 7:30:00, an hour faster than I had trained to finish Seattle.  Now I would have to take another hour off my time in 8 months, and considering how much I do well and truly suck at running, that seemed unlikely.

This created a weird situation since, by that point, I was involved in my IRONMAN training (in fact, the idea to do the IM came from some audiobooks that I was listening to trying to psych myself up to do this marathon.)

I’ve been working to increase my speed but it has become clear that it would be very touch and go as to whether or not I would be able to finish in 6.5 hours, and I have no desire to DNF a marathon I don’t have to do.

So I’m definitely doing another marathon before the IM, but it’s not going to be LA this year. At this point I’m not sure which one, I’m looking at options and working with my coach – there is a lot to take into account including location and travel, my race schedule leading up to the IM, do I want to find one with a longer time limit sooner, or give myself more time to pick up my pace etc.

Meanwhile I’m happy that I’m making really good progress on the spin bike, and my first attempt at swimming laps went way better than I had hoped!  The running is still by far the most difficult thing for me, but I’ll get there. I’m sad not to run the LA marathon this year but I’m excited to finish a marathon, an IM, and everything in between.

Since the marathon training is getting swept up into the IM training, I’m going to move all of the updates to the IronFat blog, so if you are interested in keeping up with my progress you can check out (and even subscribe if you want) www.IronFat.com. Thanks to everyone for your continued well wishes and support, it really does mean the world to me!

Like this blog?  Here’s more cool stuff:

If you’re looking for fun fitness stuff to do in the New Year without any diet talk, weight loss talk, or body shaming, but with lots of fun, flexibility, and body positivity, check out the Fit Fatties Forum Virtual Event Challenge!

Become a Member For ten bucks a month you can support size diversity activism, help keep the blog ad free, and get deals from size positive businesses as a thank you.  Click here for details

Buy the book:  Fat:  The Owner’s Manual  The E-Book is Name Your Own Price! Click here for details

Book Me!  I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information on topics, previous engagements and reviews here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!

Dance Classes:  Buy the Dance Class DVDs or download individual classes – Every Body Dance Now! Click here for details 

A movie about my time as a dancer is in active development (casting, finding investors etc.).  Follow the progress on Facebook!

If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.


Back to Featured Articles on Logo Paperblog