Fall Marathon Decisions

When I didn't get into the NYC Marathon by lottery I thought two things. 

1) five min faster on my marathon time gets me in next year without the lottery

2) I  still want to run another full this year. 

But after the Long Island Marathon I eased up on the miles. 

Me in the purple.  Third place out of the gates!

Ran a huge PR (and a 5th place overall finish) in a Women's race.  Then ran 42 days in a row with no plan other than the #RWRunStreak and completing 100 miles in June.  Two weeks ago I realized if I wanted to run anything I had to get myself into gear and get building the miles.  I was way behind!

I have decided that I will run the Hartford marathon in October.  It met my simple requirements: Its close enough to drive to that day. 

I hemmed and hawed over doing some others but the fact is it is hard to commit to a weekend when boys weekend activities are crazy.  I just registered both boys for fall baseball.  They both do Cub Scouts.  B also plays soccer.  I am tired just thinking about September-November around here.   I have figured out how to squeeze all my training in but I don’t like missing more of their “stuff” than I have to.  Mommy guilt I guess. 

 So I launched into a training plan.  Hit fast forward and landed myself comfortably at 15 miles this past Saturday, before my son’s sleepover party!  Talk about being tired!

I had been running 25-30 miles since the June run streak and had some good long runs.  I am looking at 12 weeks of following a plan.  A twenty week marathon training plan is simply too long for me.   This past Spring I was done by week 16.  Ready for the marathon.  I was tired of the plan.  The mocking daily e-mail reminders of what I need to do before the end of the day. I promised myself I would not torture myself.  Well since I finally decided on a marathon and its closer than 20 weeks mission accomplished! 

Marathon # 3 here I come!