Another One Bites the Dust

One more month of 2010 GONE. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were grilling out for The Fourth of July?

So bring on August! It’s the last month of our hottest part of summer (THANK GOD!!!); it’s the official start of my marathon training; and it’s when we always take our end-of-summer trip to Florida. It’s gonna be a good month!

About this marathon training… 18 weeks from tomorrow we will be running the streets of Vegas! Woot! To get us there, we’ve decided on Hal Higdon’s novice program. My good buddy Hal has gotten me through my two half-marathons, so let’s see what he can do for me in a full.

The program will take care of the physical preparedness, but I know me and I know I’m gonna need a little mental stimulation along the way. Enter Clarksville Running Club! I’ve always done my training runs completely solo, but I’m going to try something new for this new marathon endeavor. I’m joining a running club. Clarksville is about an hour and a half away, so I don’t plan on joining them on their long runs just yet. I see no point in driving that far for a run that will take me less time than the drive. I’ll stick it out solo until I get into the higher mileage. I’ll wait until about week 7 or so. That’s when the long runs hit 12 miles and stay in the double digits for the duration. I talked to the lady heading up the club, and she said that she knew she had members that were going to be training for the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, and it just so happens that that race is the very same weekend as Vegas, so there will be lots of us running the same distances every weekend. I’m pretty stoked about joining and having some company. 🙂

Also on the topic of motivation, Abbi from Higher Miles had the brilliant idea of heading up a first-time marathoner’s virtual club! There are lots of us in the blogosphere that are training for our first right now, and Abbi took the initiative and started the Distance Dreamers. I think it’s an absolutely fantastic idea, and hats off to her for organizing the whole thing!

So it seems like I’m all set! I’ve got the gear, I’ve got the support, and I’ve got the will–now if my heart, lungs, and legs will just play nice I’m golden!