Marathon?

In January I decided to train for a marathon. It sounded like a good and fun challenge at the time. After all, I was already running 13 miles on my long runs so I knew I had enough time to follow a good training program. I also was toying with running a marathon in the fall so it wasn't a complete spur of the moment decision to join my friends in their training.

The training has been going pretty well. Not too many bumps or set-backs along the way. I'm enjoying the program I'm following. The intervals, tempos & long runs have been tough, but challenging and I can feel myself getting stronger. Like I said, I've been liking the training.

Until today. Today was my first ever 20-miler. In. My. Entire. Life. And I did not enjoy it. Matter of fact, by mile 15 I was questioning my ability, and truth be told, my desire to run a marathon. I was tired. Things were starting to hurt, especially my right foot, which I'm pretty sure has a stress fracture as a consequence of my sad, and incredibly maddening, shoe saga.

I'm not sure what the next 4 weeks will bring. When I was talking this over with Dave he said "You just ran 20 miles certainly you will be able to run 26.2" Thanks for the vote of confidence, Babe, but I'm just not sure. If I run this race, I want to be able to run it and feel good about my performance. I hope that today's performance was not an indicator of what my 26.2 would look like.

I know I can do hard things. I just don't know about this hard thing.