Choosing to do even one marathon is to be comfortable stretching beyond the comfort zone for most people. Doing 7 in 7 days is almost inconceivable for almost anyone besides the people who are reading this.
That said, for many of us, running long feels normal and natural. We may enjoy doing it more than almost anything else. In my experience, the flip side of the incredible resilience of distance runners can be the preference for our routines, environments, clothing, fueling, and other comforts that we can rely on without thinking.
The Control Freak in All of Us
Each of us are certainly already putting a ton of effort into planning and packing to account for these preferences. But for each of us, there will come a time when we will have to accept the unaccounted-for circumstance, the unexpected reaction of our bodies, and an unfamiliar environment or fueling option. With four months to go, we have a wonderful opportunity to embrace the marathoning control freak in all of us, acknowledge that tendency, and prepare for a flexibility we may not have needed to prepare for in past events.
Leaning In to the Suboptimal
I love my routines as much as all of you, and being a coach, I typically get to sit in the driver's seat on most of what I do athletically. Over the past few weeks, however, I have found myself consciously leaning in to things that may not be optimal from my standpoint: adjustments I may have to make but would typically be annoyed by, being ok with a perpetual motion pace vs. a more aspirational effort, and basically not letting perfect be the enemy of the good.
I'm still the same creature of habit that I've always been, but I'm acknowledging, like an improvisational actor, that it is a learned and valuable skill to accept the unexpected and use what it brings to adapt successfully into an undaunted forward advance.
— Dena Evans
Yes, And
Improv theater has a foundational rule: whatever your scene partner throws at you, you accept it and build on it. "Yes, and." Ted Lasso made the point recently, and it lands just as well on a marathon course at the bottom of the world. If the rhythm gets disrupted, and it will, the skill is in rolling with it and advancing anyway.
If that is also your struggle, I wish you strength as you prepare for the ultimate rhythm disruption. And if you're already on the mountaintop, I look forward to learning from your adaptability as we repeatedly say "yes, and" until the finish line is in sight.