37,455 The number of finishers in 2012
16,767 The number of female finishers in 2012 (45%)
525,000 people finished marathons in the United States in 2011, an increase of 75% from the 299,000 people who finished marathons in 2000. In the US, the New York Marathon is still the biggest, with 46,536 finishers in 2011, and Chicago comes in 2nd. The next closest is the elite Boston marathon (23,879 finishers in 2011).
These stats seem huge to me, and represent how much marathon training is growing, however, compared to the general population stats (US population estimated at 311,800,000 in mid-2011), the percentage of marathon finishers still only represents less than 1% of the general population (0.17% to be exact).
So, assuming I finish this bad boy, I will be putting myself among an increasingly growing group of seemingly crazy individuals who pay $175 to put their bodies through the experience of covering 26.2 miles of concrete. At the same time, this is still an experience that less than 2 out of every 1000 people in our country will go through.
These numbers reflect some of the opposing thoughts I have about the fact that I'm [finally] doing a marathon. I think my decision is a little different than many people who choose to do a marathon. That is, its my impression that more often, people to do a marathon earlier in their running career. I have actually been running consistently for over 5.5 years, finished 8 half marathons and many 5-10K races in this time, and have really been quite immersed in the running world. In fact, many people I told about the marathon thought I had already done one. I've watched many of my friends train for and complete marathons, including their first one, as well as qualifying for and running the elusive Boston marathon. I have heard countless times about "the wall" and many different training tips and woes. I have even run parts of marathons with several different friends (the hilly part, the last 5 miles, etc.), to help them keep pace and keep focused. All in all, I feel that more than many people taking on this new task, I have a pretty good idea what I'm getting myself into.
Because of this exposure to the world of marathoning, I can't help but feel like this decision is a little anti-climactic. But on the other hand, every single time I finished a half marathon, I swear I thought, among other things, "Doing that twice would really suck." I truly think this experience will be much different than the multiple half marathons I've done, especially since 13 miles became kind of... not a huge deal, particularly as I completed my 6th, 7th, and 8th ones. Additionally, unlike the halfs, I think this will be my only full marathon, unless perhaps it goes horribly wrong and I feel the need to do a "re-do" experience. I'd really like to be one of the "one and done" marathoners. I want the experience, without the continual time commitment and wear on my body.
My mindset going into this experience is something like this: I aint really that special, but at the same time this is special and influential decision for me. Perhaps that is a good way to view lots of our experiences in life. In any case, if you are reading this, I look forward to sharing my journey with you. I make no promises about what it might hold, but I hope that I learn something good and perhaps have some sort of important wisdom to impart when I'm done. Either way, welcome to my journey.
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