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How My Life Changed When I Trained for My First Marathon

Photograph: Ian Vecchiotti for TimeOut Chicago.


My runner friends had a warning for me not long after I started training for my first marathon.

“It’s going to take up a lot of your life,” they said. “Like…a LOT.”

Then, they included an additional caveat.

“It’s going to force you to make some lifestyle changes as well.”

When I started training for the Chicago Marathon back in January, I was burning the midnight oil taking on freelance writing projects in addition to working at my full-time job as a magazine editor during the week. I also had a fairly robust social life, wherein I’d go out multiple times per week. If I wasn’t going out, I’d have a couple of drinks at home on the couch after work to unwind because hey, wine tastes good and in a city like Chicago, it’s plentiful.

Despite my friends’ warnings, I figured I’d be able to balance everything and not change a thing. I’d fit in my runs around my freelance projects and my full-time gig and my social life.

In the end, I was wrong, they were right.

Looking back over the past 10 months of training for my first marathon, my life and my lifestyle have changed a lot over that time. I’ve put my freelance projects on hold, I don’t drink as much, and I pay a lot more attention to what I eat before and after runs.

Chances are your life will change quite a bit if you decide to try and tackle 26.2 miles yourself.

Here’s how:

Your wild Friday nights are no longer: Depending on which training plan you follow, your long run for the week is either going to be on Saturday or Sunday morning. So, those crazy Friday nights you used to have? Yeah, forget about that. Ever tried running three miles on a nasty hangover, let alone nine? You’ll regret that quickly. Sticking to a marathon training regimen means your weekends are a lot quieter than they once were…and that’s not such a bad thing.

You’ll talk about running…a lot: And I do mean a LOT. That is in part because training for a marathon is a commitment on par with a part-time job, wherein you’re committing yourself to getting out there four days a week, sometimes for up to 3-4 hours at a time. Spend that much time doing the same activity and you’ll find it seeping into your everyday conversations, much to the chagrin of some around you. But, who cares about them? You’re the one working your ass off to tick off a major bucket list item.

You start gravitating towards other runners: This goes back to the talking about running thing – Find out someone else is also training for the marathon or has already run a marathon and the two of you are almost instantaneously friends because the two of you know what it’s like. “Oh yeah, you put parts of your life on hold to try and run a crazy long distance,” you’ll think. “You’re alright my dude.”

Running can be a lonely sport, especially when you’re out there on the lakefront path or the 606 first thing in the morning alone with your headphones. Maybe it’s because of that that running seems to foster a sense of camaraderie.

You find yourself consuming foods you didn’t used to: Before I started training for my first marathon, I didn’t care much for yogurt or bananas, and drinking chocolate milk was something reserved for special occasions.

Now?

All three of the aforementioned foodstuffs are staples in my diet. Heading into marathon training, you’ll find yourself researching the ideal pre-and-post run meals. For some people, that involves talking to others who have run marathons or reading runners’ magazines. For me, that involved…well, Googling a bunch of stuff, and Google told me that bananas are basically nature’s version of a PowerBar, strawberry yogurt provides the carbs and protein needed to fuel a run, and chocolate milk is the ideal recovery drink after a long run because it also has carbs and protein. I don’t know if all of that is the best advice, but I ran with it and it’s worked for me so far.

You guys, I just ran 18 miles and now I'm going to drink some chocolate milk.

A post shared by Matt Lindner (@mattlindner) on

Your stress levels will go way down: Here’s the thing about running long distances – It taxes your body to the point where you can’t coherently think about anything else other than finishing your run.

That means that that fight you had with your significant other? Gone by mile two. Your boss driving you crazy? He doesn’t exist by mile four.

That woman who yelled at you when you were a cashier at Target as a teenager who you still hear in your head sometimes? Yeah, she’s silenced by mile six.

Your clothes don’t fit quite like they used to: This has been my favorite part about training for a marathon. You’ll find that when you settle into a regular exercise regimen that has you running four days a week and in the gym at least one more, you start to build muscle and burn fat.

Funny how that works, right?

Shirts that used to fit snugly I’m not swimming in thanks to the fact that I’ve lost a significant amount of fat since I started training for the marathon 10 months ago, hashtag humblebrag. I’m down four inches on my waist, which means none of my old jeans fit anymore. It’s a great feeling, and one that makes all those early morning runs worth it.

All that pizza you used to eat? You can now eat more of it, guilt free: What, you thought I was going to tell you to change your diet? Nah. You’re a runner now. Chances are you’re not going to win the marathon. Pizza has carbs, and you’ll burn off those additional calories on your run first thing tomorrow morning.

Dig in.

Matt Lindner is a Chicago-based writer and editor whose work has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, RedEye, and on ESPN.com among other outlets. He will be running his first Chicago Marathon on October 8. Find him on Twitter @mattlindner.

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