26.2

Am I really thinking about running a second marathon? I have asked myself this question multiple times a day for the last month. I have attempted to sucker my friends into training with me to no avail, and when I broached the idea to Matt, he said, "when we did the last marathon, you made me promise to talk you out of it if you ever wanted to run another one." Reason being, it was such a huge commitment. It took over my life and I had multiple injuries throughout the training process. I hated running endless laps around boring Winchester and I hated training in the summer when it was so hot and I get easily overheated. I loved running previous to that race and training made running into a chore. The marathon in itself was okay, although, everything after mile 22 is a blur, until the finish when we had to run up a steep hill to the finish (thanks a lot Marine Corps Marathon). I think the issue with the race was I had different goals and expectations for the race than my training partner. He wanted to finish by a certain time, and I just wanted to make it to the finish alive. I felt like I let him down when we could not finish by his goal time. So instead of being happy with my goals, I had a bad taste in my mouth regarding the whole race.

Which leads me to my current decision. While finishing the MCM was a great accomplishment for me, I really want to give another marathon a go to have a more positive experience. I am going to register for the Colorado Marathon in Ft. Collins, CO. I have read great things about the race. There will be about 1,000 runners in the marathon field so I will not have to run elbow to elbow with people like in the MCM that had 30,000 runners. While DC was incredibly beautiful and I felt privileged to run around our Nation's Capital, the Colorado Marathon will be a completely different setting. The course is along the Poudre River, they start you at the top of the canyon and you run down the mountain and finish in the town of Ft. Collins which is a cute town of which I blogged about previously. Basically, the course is downhill with a moderate uphill at mile 17, how can you beat that? The race is May 1st, 2011. I will train during the winter which I actually enjoyed this past year when training for the Boulder Spring Half. Also, there are endless running trails here in Denver so I can really mix things up with my runs.

Am I crazy for contemplating another marathon? Probably, but think I am ready to take on the commitment of training once again and make it as positive an experience as I can for myself. I look at it as my last hurrah before I am too busy chasing little Courts around to dedicate the time.

Hope Matt doesn't have to say "I told you so" at the end of all this. Wish me luck, my training will start December 27th.