The wonderful and infuriating thing about friends is that they push you to do things you think are beyond your capabilities. Yesterday, during Abbee And Mel Go To the Gym Time*, Abbee started asking me if I wanted to train for a marathon with her.

Now, Abbee is a former high-school cross-country runner. I have never been a runner; my lung capacity has been constricted by chest-tube scar tissue since I was 2 years old, resulting in a constant borderline-asthmatic peak-flow test score. In other words, imagine being on the edge of a very, very mild asthma attack your entire life. Rolfing (deep myofascial therapy) significantly improved my lung capacity a few years ago, but oxygen is still kinda hard. My temperament is also far more of a sprinter's than a marathoner's; I work almost entirely in short spurts and am mildly horrified by the idea of doing anything (except sleeping) for several hours in a row.

But I'm intrigued. I thought my brain was a sprinter's brain, and so my body must be a sprinter's body, with fast-twitch rather than slow-twitch muscle fibers. But that's not necessarily the case. Last year, a kinesiology major watching me lift weights commented that I was powering slowly out of lifts rather than exploding through them, and that my agility drills were quick to plateau -- indicating that I might have a distance runner's muscle composition, if only I'd develop it instead of training for exactly its opposite. "You'd probably be a good marathon runner," he said.

I laughed, and then I thought about it, and then I laughed again. And then I kept thinking about it. I do want to develop the sort of discipline that distance running would force me to develop -- the long-term haul, the consistency, the quiet solitude I find so difficult. I wonder what my limitations are. So I told Abbee I'd train for a 5k with her for the end of the semester, and then we'll decide more based on how that goes.

This post is to remind me of that decision (although I'm pretty sure Abbee is going to do that anyway).

*One of many "Abbee and Mel Do Action X" formats. Other common formats include "Abbee And Mel Cook European Food," "Abbee and Mel Pray A Multilingual Rosary While Laughing Uproariously," "Abbee and Mel Do A Late-Night Diner Run," "Abbee and Mel at Daily Mass," and dozens of other little things that constantly remind me how blessed I am to have friends like this.