Feet Move Forward

I read my old training logs last night, the ones that I kept when I first started running. When I was training for my first marathon... When I didn't know how far this addiction would go.

Back then my only goal was to finish the marathon, to cross it off my Bucket List.

I found an entry from the first time I maintained a sub-8 pace for longer than a couple miles, something I didn't know I was capable of: 4/14/10- 7.77 miles; 1:00:57; 7:51 average pace. Ran Cambria Hill, super strong headwind on the way back. Quad still sore from yesterday. FASTEST EVER!

I can remember talking to a male running buddy whose BQ time was 3:30, which means maintaining a 8:00 pace. That sounded IMPOSSIBLE to me. And then, less than a year later, I did that and then some, running a 3:27 and qualifying myself.
  I'm not really sure when running became more than a hobby and turned into a dream. But it has. And a lot of days it sucks. This isn't something that comes easy for m…

... you spend all morning in bed watching live streaming of NYRR TV as they interview all the athletes that will be running the NYC Half Marathon tomorrow. I've gotten out of bed to make coffee and toast and to grab my laptop.

Both the men's and women's fields are really strong:  Ryan, Meb, Mo, Gebre, Galen, Abdi (and local MN runner Jason Lehmkuhle!) for the men and Kara (!) is  leading the ladies. This will be her first competitive race back after having her baby just six months ago. She will also be competing in Boston in less than a month, and she's made it clear she's looking for the win there.

You can safely assume that I will be up tomorrow at 6:15 a.m. watching live streaming of the race. Yep, running nerd. Seriously, it's like Christmas Eve for me.

Get the diddy on the rest of the field on the NYRR website.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I'll only be racing one marathon in 2011. Last year I ran Des Moines two weeks after working my butt off in the weeks leading up to the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. Being so busy with work affected my training, which was during my taper but still an important week, i.e. not a good week to be on my feet all the time, not sleeping, and eating like crap. This year I'd like to pick a race that's a bit farther out from our Race Weekend (Sep 30- Oct 2 this year).

Through a lot of online research, reading back issues of Runner's World and talking to some friends, I've narrowed it down to three possible marathons, each with it's own Pros and Cons. I've used MarathonGuide.com as a source for runner reviews but have taken them with a grain of salt since I don't know if the reviewer is a "competitive" runner or a "run for fun" runner.

I don't give a damn about what the shirt or the medal looks like,…