My Motivation to Run a Marathon

My dad is currently training to run the Oakland Marathon on March 28, 2010.  He used to run marathons and other running events but he suffers from chronic depression so that amongst other things has prevented him from a lot of his potential.  We talk on the phone a lot and I try to help encourage and motivate him when he gets good ideas like this but when he's low, he's very low and the periods of high don't last long enough.  I'm hoping that he will stick through his training and complete the marathon.  I remember once before, years back that we were talking and I had gotten the idea that after he dies I would run a marathon to honor him.  I don't know how but at the time it seemed appropriate for me to share that idea with him.  He told me that if I was really serious then he'd rather me just do it while he's alive.  Makes sense.  Well, I think now is the perfect time for me to do this for him.

Instead of telling him now and getting his hopes up, I've decided to make it a surprise.  I know he'll be thrilled and I love to surprise people.  I'm not sure how training is going to go.  Maybe I'll have to switch it to just doing the half marathon.  I don't think I've mentioned this yet...my dad is the only runner in the family so this is a huge challenge for me.  I don't know how his training is going to go either.  He's in Chicago and winters are rough, much harder to train there than here in the Bay Area.  If it gets to a point where he is talking about giving up and I think I'm still on track to being able to do it then I will tell him that I've been training and hopefully that will be enough motivation for him to continue.

Goal: Going from 0mi to 26.2mi.
Oakland Marathon, March 28, 2010 with my dad

I registered for Team In Training yesterday and started training today and did 1.99 miles. Check back soon for more on that next time.