Four and Five in Twenty Twelve

Miles run this evening 3.8
Days until Burlington: 230

Registration for the Burlington City Marathon in Vermont opened up on November 1st. The reminder was sitting on my calendar taunting me a little bit while I waited for pay day. Should I really sign up? Am I really going to train this time? Am I really trying to PR on a mountain course?

After I floundered (almost literally) in Chicago in 2010, I took this year off of marathoning. My pride was hurt, and with it went my confidence, my desire and my reasons to run. Every race, I watch people pass me by as I plod along, and I wonder why I choose something I'm not very good at to be my passion. I always hate the "But you finished! That's incredible!" comments that come after my "I had the most horrible time ever. I didn't even train." statement that has become my CM10 soundbite.

So for 2011, I haven't run anything over 7 miles yet - not even in training. I focused on getting faster. I focused on shorter distances. I did a triathlon to get some cross training. And I really, really, really thought about why I run (one reason: I really, really, really hate swimming). Because the why fuels the when and the how often, which would ultimately feed into the how good I get.

The lynch pin race for me was the BAA 10K. If I didn't break an hour, after all the track workouts, training runs and lifting, I doubt I would have continued running. I just would have been too broken (why do I suck at marathons? Will there ever be enough training to run a 59:59 10K? Maybe I should take up competitive zumba) to run. Luckily, I ran it in 58:36 (thanks to help from my running buddy and a good cheering section), so here I am, staring down 2012.

Back in 2009, while I was in the middle of running the Boston Marathon, I decided I wanted to run 5 marathons before I turned 30. Back in 2009, 30 seemed like...at least 4000 years away. Now it means I have to run 2 marathons before October 25, 2012. Oof.

So like I said, here I am. Signed up for marathon #4, on a mountain course, trying to break 5 hours (which would be 1:19:50 over my last time, but a 19:07 improvement over my PR). I