As I mentioned in my first posting to this blog, I ran a marathon last year. This marathon was the now-infamous 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. On the day of the race, a rare October heat wave sent temperatures soaring to 88 degrees; hundreds of people were hospitalized due to heat-related injuries, one person died, and the race was partially canceled due to the chaos. I wrote about my experience at that marathon here, if anyone is interested.
After my less-than-stellar finishing time of 5:50:48 from that freakishly hot race, I decided I would need to run at least one more race, if not many more. That’s why I’ve decided to run the 2008 Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio this May. I chose this race because of its funny name, its convenient timing eighteen weeks from now, its having Marriott hotels close to the starting line (I happen to have a lot of reward points for that particular hotel chain), and the fact that I can get to Cincinnati via the super-cheap Megabus. I sincerely hope that the 6:30 AM start of this race will make the heat-related chaos of Chicago’s marathon unlikely, although I suppose anything can happen.
Aside from the possibility of another freak heat wave, there will be other challenges associated with this race. The course for Cincinnati is much hillier than the course for Chicago, and training for these hills is pretty difficult right now seeing as the few lonely hills in Chicago are currently covered in ice and snow. Then there is the whole challenge of running in the cold, which I haven’t done much of before. Factor in the fact that I’ve been a bit of a lazy slug since the last marathon, and this could be difficult. I figure that if I decide I’m not in good enough shape to do the marathon training, I can switch to the half-marathon instead.
Anyway, many of my upcoming blog posts will be about my training for this marathon. It will be interesting to see if I can actually complete the winter training, seeing as I clearly hate winter and am a wuss when it comes to doing anything in cold weather, let alone prolonged exercise. I figure it will probably be a good way to develop my strength of character or whatever. More importantly, it will halt the current rapid growth of my belly and thighs due to too much holiday cheer and too little “character development.”
Wish me luck?
