Editor’s note: Assistant Sports Editor Scott Martin is training to run the Maine Marathon on Oct. 4. He has a goal and it’s within reach. Between now and race day, he will occasionally share his ups and downs and everything in between of what it takes to be ready to run 26.2 miles.

I dropped my hat and sunglasses on the sidewalk as I walked along Ocean Avenue in Portland on July 22. I had two minutes to lower my heart rate and get my breathing under control before taking off for a third half-mile rep at my 5-kilometer race pace with a hill finish. Murray Street starts downhill but quickly turns into a climb … a steal-your-breath, trash-your-legs climb. 

I walked back toward Murray Street, with two reps left, and wasn’t sure I wanted to keep going. It was 80 degrees and humid, my sweaty clothes clung to my body, my legs ached and my lungs heaved as I tried to catch my breath. 

I put my hat on backward, put my sunglasses back on and had a quick conversation with myself. 

“Two more reps and you’re done,” I said to myself. “Remember the marathon. This is what it takes. You signed up for this, you want to do this. So do it.”

This is not the first time I’ve given myself this pep talk. Every time the alarm goes off for a long run about seven hours after logging off work, and at some point during every Wednesday workout with the group at Finish Strong Physical Therapy and Performance, I remind myself of the big goal I set: To finish the Maine Marathon on Oct. 4 in 3 hours, 47 minutes, 54 seconds. 

I know, that’s a strangely specific goal. Let me explain.

I ran my first marathon in 2013 in New Hampshire and finished in 4:47:54. A few hours later, my friend Seth told me I was capable of running an hour faster. That became the goal and despite multiple attempts, is still the goal.

I didn’t reach it at the Chicago Marathon in 2014 (3:56:55). I was injured and skipped my marathon in 2015, then fell short again at the Maine Marathon in 2016 (3:50:12).

I ran the Sugarloaf Marathon in 2017, but an injury halted my training in the final month and I had an awful race (4:12:05), so awful I almost gave up on marathons altogether. I ended the year with hamstring and knee issues that forced me to stop running for weeks. I did a lot of physical therapy and started over.

By the end of 2018, I was feeling good and decided maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t done with marathons after all, and signed up for the 2019 Chicago Marathon. I strained my hip flexor early in the summer, but went into the race in the best shape of my running life.

Again, I wasn’t fast enough. I finished in 3:49:45. That’s 1:51 or 4 seconds per mile too slow. I told myself, as I hobbled back to the hotel after the race, I was probably done with marathons.

It turns out I am not quite ready to give up on that goal. Seven years later, I am ready to try again.

I can’t give up on it because I was so close and because giving up is the type of thing I did before I started running.

Before I started running, I was overweight, out of shape and not motivated to change. With a little encouragement, I started a program called Couch to 5K on May 29, 2011, and it changed my life. That is not hyperbole. I lost weight. I accomplished a lot of really hard things. I met many of my favorite people.

At my core, I am still the lazy guy who would rather sit on the couch watching TV and eating Doritos, and who gives up when things get hard. I don’t want to be that guy. I hate that guy.

For the next eight weeks I can’t be that guy. There is too much work to do to give myself a chance to reach my goal on Oct. 4.

I’ll keep giving myself that pep talk because I signed up for this and this is what it takes.