official start.

Today is the official start of my marathon training. There has been a little confusion about the exact start date, but I am calling today the official start date. There are about 19 weeks until the actual marathon. It kinda makes me nervous to think that I am in this thing for reals. Although I have been running consistently for over 2 months now, I still have a bit of anxiety about committing to something so big and challenging. I know I can do it, but there's definitely this big weight on my shoulder. I have to be strong and fit and healthy for the next 4 months. And I'm not sure if my 525 calorie Philly Cheese Steak for lunch today qualifies me as being that healthy, but it sure was yummy!

Today we are scheduled to run 2 miles. I can't even remember the last time I ran just two miles. I know that seems like a lot to some and it wasn't too long ago that two miles was tough for me, but now two miles seems like a warm up. Never thought I would say that! It makes me really proud of myself that I have come that far in two months. One reason being that I've never been much of a runner, and two, I'm surprised because I actually enjoy running. I enjoy sweating and just getting out there and doing something for me. I have no idea what I even think about when I run, but I know that I work through a lot of things that are bothering me when I am out there. It's quite refreshing. I watch an interview with Lance Armstrong and his ex-wide was the one interviewing him. She mentioned that running makes her feel "clean." Running makes me feel "refreshed." I can't even imagine where I would be right now if I hadn't committed to running this marathon.

I kindof got off track there... We are scheduled to run 2 miles today and since that is a little easy for me, I ran a little bit more than that. As I was walking out the door this morning, sans dog, I was trying to decide whether or not I should take something to drink. I don't want to have to carry it the whole time, so I opted out of taking anything. That was the first major lesson of the training. Take something to drink if it even crosses your mind because you will kick yourself in the butt if you don't. It was already hot and humid and I knew that I would probably need something, but figured that I wasn't going to run anything over 5 miles, so I would be fine, right? Well the last half mile I headed up a killer hill down by the river and it just about killed me. I was pretty much dehydrated and actually hit my milage at the time I needed to stop. So from now on, any thing over 4 miles with the temperature being 75 degrees with 75% humidity, I'm taking something to drink!