With this blog I here by declare my intent to run the 2015 Chicago marathon. With that sarcastically dramatic opening statement out of the way, Iets talk about the marathon and what it means to me.
Over the last few years, I cannot count how many times my running and non running friends have asked me: "Have you ran a marathon?" or "do you want to run a marathon?".
The answer is no and yes, respectively. After roughly 5 years of off and on running (mostly on except for the months leading up to and after the birth of my first child and also an injury that sidelined me for about 6 months), I think I am ready to take on the race distance. Do I think I could have run one before now? Absolutely, probably 3 years ago. But I didn't want to run my first marathon with the goal of just finishing it (an admirable goal by the way), but I wanted to be confident I could not only finish but also tackle a goal I set for myself.
With the race not until October and entry not guaranteed, I'm honestly not sure right now what that goal will be. My knee jerk reaction is less than 4 hours and I would be thrilled, but maybe that is too open ended. I will have to decide on what that goal will be when it gets closer to the actual training program to begin. In the meantime I will just keep my training simple and try and increase my level of fitness between now and then.
Right now I have no answers. I don't know my target pace, I don't know what my training plan will be, how I should change my current nutritional habits (pretty clean now, but not great), I've never been to Chicago and I don't even know if I will get picked in the lottery. But there is one thing I do know; if there is a chance I only run one marathon, Chicago is the one I want it to be. That and I know I'm ready.
As the year and my training progress, I look forward to all of the tips and comments from you runners out there. I particularly look forward to nutritional pointers and travel tips from those who have made the trip to the race before.
Happy running everyone.
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