Friday, February 26, 2010

New Goal - Run a Marathon

This last week has been a strange one. I set a new PR in the Law Enforcement Torch Run 5K for Special Olympics and then had a excellent long run the next day (12 miles at 8.20/mile). I have been feeling stronger during my runs this year and I am looking forward to attempting to achieve my goal of a sub 1:45 Half Marathon in Virginia on 3/21.

Running a Marathon has been in the back of my mind since the great weekend that I had at the Kiawah Half Marathon, but I have been unwilling to put in the extra training hours (and miles) that I'd need to be able to do myself justice over 26.2 miles.

Yesterday I got the motivation to take on the extra work and train for a Marathon. On Thursday morning is got the news that a friend and colleague (who was in his mid-40's) had died suddenly of a heart attack. There aren't many things in my life that I put off 'till tomorrow when I can do them today, but a Marathon has always been in that category. What I was reminded of on Thursday is that tomorrow might never come. While this is a cliche, and I of course expect to be around tomorrow and for many more tomorrows to come, I feel that I should take this opportunity while I can.

I am going to target the Marine Corps. Marathon in Washington DC in late October.

I'll post my training program in late March. I am not going to modify my training program until after the Shamrock Half Marathon, when I will have 30 weeks left until the Marathon.

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