My coach’s stated goal for Week 10 marathon training was to work on mental toughness. It is self-evident, I suppose, that a runner cannot coax her body to run 26.2 miles without it. However, as the week rolled on, my initial view of the meaning of “mental toughness” changed as both my runs and life threw challenges my way.

A recent article profiled a runner who qualified for the Boston Marathon in each of the 50 states. In my imagination, I envision his buddies offhandedly asking whether he wants to run a marathon next weekend, and this runner nonchalantly replying “sure, sign me up” in the same way that I would throw in for a 5k any given day of the week. In my vision, I am sure that he does not have to prepare, because he is always prepared. Unlike that guy, my warm up to marathon day is a 16-week haul, and I am only now closing in on the halfway point.

Beginning official marathon training with the NYRR coaching staff embodies everything that is fresh and good about the first week of school.  I have daily running homework assignments complete with tips and detailed instructions. Once I get the job done, I use the tracking system to send the details of my workout to my coach and within a day I have email feedback (my report card) from the coaching staff.  In Week One, I started to learn some of the workouts and their acronyms that, no doubt, will become rote by Week Ten. Ironically, though, the most important lesson I learned the first week had nothing to do with running at all.

Me committing to run the New York City Marathon and deciding to publicly write about it was the suburban-mom equivalent of playing your first game of poker at a high stakes table in Vegas, pushing your chips into the middle, standing up and declaring with conviction that you’re all-in.  Yep, I’m all-in all right, and with just over 13 weeks to go, this sh*t is getting real. Which is why I hedged my bet and hired a coach.