Post-Race Euphoria Leads to BIG Plans in 2010

Haha, last post was two weeks before the half marathon, that now is over a month passed!

So to summarize, the half was a great day for me. The weather was ideal and the course was everything that I'd heard it would be - flat, fast and exciting. I finished more than 11 minutes faster than my last half marathon, in 2:25. That's still 5 minutes slower than my first one, but I'm not complaining. I've come a long way and despite those couple weeks of lower morale during training, it was a great experience.

So the night before the race (during an incredible dinner at Cuba Libre in Old City) the words 'marathon next year' graced my lips. And now I'm spending time checking out when and where marathons are. There's the obvious ones - New York, Chicago, Philly, Disney, MCM, Steamtown, Lehigh Valley. And then there are the ones I never knew about or hadn't thought much of before - Rehoboth, Wineglass (in the Finger Lakes!), Outer Banks, Richmond. So what do I use to choose one - date, location, terrain, size. My initial thinking is late spring or mid- to late fall. And I think it would be helpful to be close enough to be able to drive to the race. It's tough doing a big race and having to stay overnight in a hotel, so I can only imagine the extra stress of flying.

But then there's the perspective of doing this marathon as a once-in-a-lifetime thing and using it to go somewhere different, and if I have to fly then use vacation time to make it a real trip. So then I'm looking at races in Europe and California. But oooohhh, I don't know. I love that concept, but don't think my bank account will go that far. So that just means that I'll do one next year as a practice and then when I marry a rich man I'll do the dream mary.

Now as I'm doing all this deep thinking and web searches, I'm challenging myself and getting my butt into gear at boot camp. Three days a week I do 45 minutes of hardcore plyometrics, cardio, abs and strength training. We've been doing at least 50 pushups each session! I have time now and it's a lot like having a trainer, without the price. I'm enjoying it, feel a lot stronger and after only one week of my four week plan, I hopped on board for the next session of three weeks. Over the 7 weeks I'm hoping to lose a few pounds and get faster. I'm doing three or four races in the next month so they'll be a good test. I've been getting out for about 10 miles each week and went to spin class twice last week.

Final thought - there's this tiny voice in my mind gnawing away at this notion of doing a marathon next year. It reminds me of all the time, focus and RUNNING involved just in training. I'm really trying not to let it get to me, but it's there. When I make my decision, I'm definitely looking into a training plan that is better than Runners World Smart Coach - that's a great plan, but I'm going to need to step up and the training plan needs to be the best.