My 26.2 Mile Goal

I have always wanted to run a marathon. To me it is the pinnacle of success in long distance running. The crowning achievement.

I have also always wanted to visit New York City and run in Central Park. Why, I am not sure. I just always have.

When I was in my early 20's I made a goal to run a marathon by the time I was 30. Thirty is fast approaching. In just 6 1/2 months to be exact - yikes!

Fast forward to the present. On Friday my November subscription of Runner's World came in the mail and like always this issue covers in depth the upcoming NYC Marathon. I am always excited to get this issue because I am just fascinated by this marathon. It is so exciting to read about what is to come and what it is like to run there and be a spectator there.

As I was out running yesterday I was thinking all about the NYC marathon and got to thinking that why not try and get into the 2011 or 2012 NYC marathon? Hundreds of thousands of runners from all walks of life run this marathon each year so why not me?!

I got home and excitedly shared my idea with Johnny because I wanted to know if he thought this was a crazy idea, but much to my surprise he said as long as he didn't have to run it he likes the idea and thinks I could totally do it and should go for it.

So, I spent some time researching the ins and outs of this marathon and have determined that in order to get in with a qualifying time I am going to have to be really, really disciplined (think getting up early to run) and work my tail off. The 1/2 marathon qualifier for my age group is 1 hour 39 minutes, which is slightly daunting so we'll see. However, I was also glad to see that even if your time never qualifies you can still enter the lottery in January of each year and try to earn entry that way. If after three years of the lottery you aren't ever selected you are guaranteed a spot in the marathon on the 4th year so that would put me in at least in 2014.

I've got one 1/2 marathon under-my-belt from 2002, a bunch of fairly recent 10k races, and I run all the time, but in order to prep for 26.2 miles in 2011 or 2012 (I hope!) I have decided to create a structured weekly training plan that I am really, really going to try and stick to. I am also going to run a 1/2 marathon this upcoming February and a marathon in May or June so I can achieve my marathon goal by the time I'm 30, and then I'll go from there!

I am just so excited to have something big to work towards accomplishing and I'm also so excited that it will take place in New York :)!

A Treat of a Different Sort

Zeke loves dog biscuits. Whenever we are visiting my parents and he gets a dog bone for Riley he almost always gets one or two for himself too. At first I thought it was kind of gross, but really, when you read the ingredients I can't really see why they would be bad. In some ways they are probably healthier than some of the junk food out there.

So, last week Zeke and I were visiting the animals in a local pet store when I noticed Zeke hovering near the bulk dog biscuit bin. Thinking he wanted to choose something for Riley I told him to go ahead and choose one that we could save for Riley for the next time we saw her. He quickly chose a red, medium sized one, but rather than hand it over to me to pay for it he quickly took a bite out of it and would have continued to eat the whole thing, but I grabbed it from him and convinced him that Riley would really like it. I promise I really do feed Zeke - I imagine it sounds like he is a starving child to go choosing dog biscuits from the pet store :).

Below is what the biscuit looked like when we got home. By the time it got to Riley a few days later it was just a short, little stub.