The Countdown has Started

Well, we are a little over 3-1/2 days away from the start of the marathon. I'm feeling pretty excited. It's been one of the few things I've been able to focus on all week. I'm also feeling kind of nervous, but I've decided there isn't anything I can do about it now so I'll just take whatever happens.

I can't believe how far I have come in the past since months. I'll be happy with the journey no matter what happens on Sunday. I've lost 25 pounds since I started training, I've met some new people, and I just feel better when I wake up in the morning. I've managed to stay injury free, except for a freak deal the week of New Year's. Missing the last hard week of training with a foot injury is the only reason I'm feeling any nerves.

I'll spend the next couple of days making sure I get plenty of protein and carbohydrates. I'll also be staying hydrated so I don't have any nutrition issues. Saturday, I'll go get my race packet at the expo and get all my clothes ready. Then, Sunday is race day. I'll be sure to give a race report next week on how everything goes.

New Marathon Goal

I haven't really set a time goal for the marathon this year. I really just thought I wanted to finish, but training is going better than expected. I also have learned about my abilities running the warm-up series. After not running for five years, I had no clue what times I was capable of running. I have set an aggressive goal of finishing the marathon in 3:30:00. I will get a gauge on the reality of this in the final two warm-up races on November 14 and December 12. I may have to scale my goal back to 3:40:00. I will still be happy with time. It would be 27 minutes faster than my last marathon in October 2005.

Because I just figured out how to post pictures, these are some pictures from the 2005 Marine Corps Marathon I wanted to post a few months ago, but I just couldn't get it to work.

Two Weeks In, Feeling Great

Yesterday, was exactly two weeks since I started the official training program on July 17. I've only missed one workout. Hopefully, nothing will come up where I have to miss many more.

We have seminars about different topics every week after we run. I also have been reading up on different topics, nutrition, cross training, equipment, etc... I am realizing there is a lot more to this than just running. I already knew that, but this is just reinforcing what I have heard in the past. I'm going to need to start doing some strength training on Mondays and Wednesdays. I am also thinking about getting started on Hammer Nutrition products. These are things I know I will need to do to improve and stay injury free as I continue my training.

How it Started

I have once again gotten the itch to start running again. It started a few weeks ago when I saw an ad for a marathon training group here in Pearland. Then, I got a message from a high school friend on Facebook saying a group of our high school classmates should run the Chevron Houston Marathon in January. I thought about it for a few days, but not seriously.

This week on the "Biggest Loser" they ran a marathon like they do every season. One of the contestants did pretty well. He ran a 4:02 marathon. That did it for me. I decided to run another marathon. I was a little embarassed that a guy that weighed in at 375 pounds six months ago beat my marathon time by 5 minutes. I know I can run better than the 4:07 I did five years ago if I train properly.

My goal for the Chevron Houston Marathon on January 30, 2011 is to run a sub-4 hour marathon. I would really like to get below 3:45. We'll have to see how training goes. My ultimate goal if I can stick with it for another couple of years is to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

I'm going to use this blog as my training log. I'll log the details of my runs from here.