Why Am I Doing This...

 

A few months ago, when I was a few weeks out from the OKC Memorial Marathon, and a friend of mine suggested we all get into the lottery for the Chicago Marathon it sounded like a FABULOUS idea. Now I am just over 78 days away from my next 26.2 and I was wondering why I am doing this.

This will be marathon #4 for me, and I am super excited to go run in one of my favorite cities with some of my favorite people. Plus, it'll be FLAT, FLAT, FLAT! Our hotel is booked, plain reservations are made, and we even have a reservation to carb load on Saturday night.

But holy cow, do I feel like I have a long way to go! After recovering from over training for my last 26.2, I have been working for the last month on building up my miles again. I am back to running 6 miles during the week pretty regular and have been turning my Saturday runs into something that would resemble a long run.

I have 14 miles planned for tomorrow and I am trying to not feel super intimidated by the distance. I have a good plan, which won't involve many solo miles, and I will be running with as many friends as possible. I am hoping the miles will just fly by. What are the chances there is another polar vortex that swoops into Oklahoma in the next 12 hours or so and I wake up to temps in the 40s? Probably not very likely.

I always think, after a marathon, that maybe it's not the race for me. I much prefer a half marathon. I love a race for which it doesn't take much to be trained. Marathons are time consuming! But, I am still chasing that perfect race. The perfect course, the perfect weather, the perfect raining, and I think that is what is keeping me coming back.

Will Chicago be that race? Will I get my 4 hour marathon? Will I at least get a PR? Only time will tell, and I will continue to slog through these summer runs, knowing that cooler weather should be coming at some point, and the heat will make me that much stronger.

78 days to go...