Ten years ago...

I was in college. I had been married for six months. I ran my last marathon.

I can't believe it has been ten years. When I was growing up I always had running a marathon as one of my life goals. I ran my first one when I was 21, in 1995. I ran another in 1996. Then I skipped a year and ran the last one in 1998. I have been mulling around the idea of jumping back into the marathon game, and I think partly it's because I don't want to wait longer than 10 years. I mean, a decade! Granted, I have been busy. Running has not been a focus, more like a coping mechanism. I don't know if I am up for the mental challenges of training right now, and the time sacrifice-especially the weekend time sacrifice. Ugh, and I will be tired.

What would my goal be this time? Well, obviously it won't be to beat my best time (or any of my past marathon times for that matter), I accepted this past year that I will never be as fast as I once was and I need to set REALISTIC goals. But I need to have some kind of goal to keep me motivated and get me through all that training. I don't know if just proving to myself that I can run a marathon after 10 years off is enough to keep me going. I don't want to poop out in the middle of August because I'm tired of sticking to a stringent running schedule. I am also scared that if I am not really careful I could seriously hurt my feet.

Is it worth it? I guess at this point in March I have the luxury of just thinking about it and not making any commitments. I get excited, but I need to keep that in check by reminding myself that if I let this year go by there will always be another October marathon.

However, it is seems very significant to me that 2008 should be the year-I just can't let that thought go! I can see the back of my race t-shirt-

1995
Columbus

1996
Boston

1998
Columbus

3 kids

2008
Columbus