Greensboro Marathon - May 3rd

Years ago, Greensboro used to host a marathon. But interest died out and the marathon faded away.

It's back. May 3rd, 2008 will mark the return of the Greensboro marathon. And yours truly has signed up to run in it.

This marathon will be different from my last in that I have much different expectations.  I'm in no way trained for a marathon and 8 weeks is not near enough time to get me there. But my running group from last summer has been e-mailing and about 8 of us have agreed it would be fun to run this marathon together. We're not worried about time or speed. This is just for fun. I fully expect to end up walking part of this marathon and if I finish in 5 or 5 1/2 hours, that's fine.

Even in fun though, we all realize we've got to step up our training just in order to be able to finish the 26.2. So starting next Sunday, we're meeting for long runs each week. We'll start at 10 miles and hopefully work up to at least one 20 mile run.  That part will be fine. It's easy (or easier) to get a run in when I'm surrounded by friends.  The bigger challenge will be upping my weekly mileage.

Right now, I'm running about 20 miles/week. I need to quickly boost that to about 30-35.  That means longer runs and more running days. I talked to Blair last night and told him I wanted to run this marathon but that it would mean more training time. He was supportive. (I know, shocking.) But I'm going to try to fit my runs in during the day so they don't take too much time away from our time in the evenings.

The "real" marathon this year will be Richmond, VA in November. That's the one where I'm gunning for a under 4-hour marathon. Serious training will start in late June.  It will be something of a party as the two guys I run Kiawah with are going and both their wives and many members of their extended family may go and participate in the half-marathon or 8k. Plus several other running friends are going, including one woman from my running group who is aiming for a 4-hour marathon because that would qualify her for Boston. I'd love to have a running partner in a marathon and Pam and I typically run well together, so who knows? But it will be fun seeing at least a handful of people I know on the course.

Time to get running. May 3rd will be here before I know it.