Runners to your marks...

Goal For The Day: Start a Blog.

Another blog.

If history is any indication, I'll stick with posting for a few days and then forget about it for months. But I think that's the point of this blog... to break old habits.

Since 2001, I've run 16 marathons in 7 different states. For years, I've been trying to qualify for Boston. At this point, running the Boston Marathon doesn't even mean as much to me as reaching that magic 3:10 mark. I've come close a couple of times (3:15 in Cincinnatti 2010), but haven't been able to break that barrier. At times, I felt I was in shape to qualify but race-day circumstances made for a tough day. Other times, I've started my training with enthusiasm only to slack off in later months and show up to race day less than prepared for a 3:10 attempt.

Besides qualifying for Boston, one of my goals is to run a marathon in each of the 50 states. So far, I've crossed off Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, California, Florida, and most recently Minnesota. I decided that I would like to run the New York Marathon and I'd heard how difficult it can be to get in. I knew that if you entered the lottery three years in a row without getting chosen, you're automatically allowed entry on the fourth year. So, this spring, I decided I should start entering the lottery so I can run New York in a few years. As luck would have it, I was chosen on my first try! In November, I'll be running the New York Marathon!!!
Several of my more recent marathons have been in uncomfortably warm weather. I have a hard time running in the heat and I can feel myself falling apart in the later miles of the marathon when the temperature is in the 80's. I'm assuming that the weather in New York will be cool in November (if not downright cold!) so I decided this is as good of an opportunity as any to really make a push for 3:10.

My hope is that writing in this blog will help me stay motivated four months from now when I'm putting in the serious mileage and having trouble getting out of bed in the morning to run. I plan to log my daily workouts and any thoughts or epiphanies I have during my training. Ideally, I'll cross the finish line in November and be able to look back at this blog as a record of how I finally broke the 3:10 barrier.