Taking Crazy to a Whole New Level

I've run two full marathons in my life.

Marathon number one:

I just want to do one. Then I can say I've done it.
I'm gonna follow every single training run to the letter.
I'm gonna join a training group to make sure I can accomplish my goal.

Marathon number two:

I just want to earn my "S". You know, so when people say,"This is Erin, she runs marathonS", I don't have to correct them.
The first one wasn't so bad.
All of my friends are doing this one, it'll be a BLAST!
I got this training thing down, I won't even need to do all that running I did the first time around!


Yeah, you can imagine how these played out. First marathon=magical running day. Second marathon=90 some degrees on race day and I'm standing at the starting line knowing that I'm screwed.

So I took a year off. The second marathon took so much out of me I needed that time to consider if the old 26.2 was really worth it again. Of course it was. I mean I had to redeem myself from the crap show that was marathon two.

The plan was that 2012 would be my comeback year. I picked my race, Columbus, Ohio marathon. It's in the fall, I've heard great things about it and I already have two friends that have signed on to head over there with me. I'm gonna train hard and kick 26.2's butt (relatively speaking)!

I have my training schedule mapped out. It will start on the 4th week of July, I know just what I'm doing. My OCD is having oodles of fun with all of this planning..... and then..... whoops. That race director said I could upgrade my trail half marathon to a full marathon on August 4th because it seemed like a good idea to do that. When did I lose my mind? When did that happen?

This marathon happens in about 6 weeks? WTF! I kept joking about training for a marathon. Like, "ha ha ha, I know my mileage has been really high but I'm not REALLY training for a marathon, I'm just helping a friend train for one" And, "ha, ha, ha, I know 14 and 15 mile runs seem like overkill but really I just want a good spring board for when I REALLY start training for a marathon...which I am not doing right now". And now I'm openly training for one (it was silly to try to hide it all this time). And I keep thinking that this is stuff that real runners do, just deciding to run full marathons all willy nilly. No planning, no stockpiling snacks and gels, no counting back-up shoes, no planning race outfit options 6 months ahead of time.

Wait wha? Am I getting the "real runner" crazies? Crap I must be. This is either gonna be the best idea or the worst idea ever.