Decision Making by a Ponderer

Decision making is one of those things that defines what kind of a person we are.  There are people who are poor decision makers as a matter of routine.  There are people who routinely make good decisions.  I'm more of a person who, on occasion, makes a really bad one, but is convinced it's a good one.

Some decisions aren't that important in the big scheme of things.  But nevertheless, you have a choice to make, so you waste away lots of brain power and energy to choose a path that, in the long run, doesn't really matter much.  This is especially true of a ponderer (see below).

So I'm still working through whether to run the Rehoboth Beach Marathon on December 8.  Part of what I'm doing right now is increasing mileage, and watching to see how this 51 year old body is adjusting.

One thing working against me now is that when I ran the marathon in 2003, I was running an average of 19 miles/week for the 30 weeks prior to the start of the training (which is 20 weeks itself).  Yep, that's about a year of solid preparation. I haven't been doing anywhere near that 19 miles/week of preparation for the actual training. 

The problem is twofold.  There's the difficulty in increasing the mileage as the training goes on, which I think I could work through.  But the real issue is the risk of injury, which would most likely be shin splints for me.  It's the kind of injury that sometimes forces you to take time off from running for it to heal.

So here's what I'm thinking.  I'd like to give the training a shot, and see what happens.  If I develop shin splints that force me to stop, then I will.  I can always find another marathon in the spring.  Oh, and I've also decided to run a half marathon in Salisbury, MD on September 9.  That will involve a slight adjustment to the weekly long run, increasing my mileage even more radically than just the marathon training would.

This is the decision making process of a ponderer.  With all respect to a previous comment from a reader, a ponderer can't "Just do It".   It isn't his style.  He wants to feel like once he makes his decision, it will be one he can stick with.  There are plenty of "Just Do It" people in the world who don't waste a lot of time pondering on decisions, and I feel no need to be another one.