After encouraging words both here and in person, I've signed up for the Chicago Marathon. I'm not signing up for any of the formal training and/or charity groups, but I will be relying on some friends to get me through the weekend long runs on the training program I'll be using. My goal right now is to get up to a comfortable three miles so I can do the first run on the chart in June. To that end I've bought some new shoes and run 2 miles of intervals* three times. I am old, and slow, and can't breathe. Oh, and my knees hurt. I can't wait for October!
* Intervals is a fancy way of saying "run until I get out of breath, and then walk until I can breathe again".
Jason Dufair
Cool! You have to wear your helmet cam so we can run it with you...
tricia
Yay, Fuzzy!!! I am proud of you!!!!! Are you going to put Erica in a backpack and take her, too??? Wouldn't that be just precious??
Disco
You can do it! The ability is genetic. I'll come run the Chicago Marathon in October if you come run the Maraton Internacional de Buenos Aires in November: http://www.maratondebuenosaires.com -- of course, running 42 kilometers just seems further.
Rebecca Rine-Stone
You can do it!!! Seriously, just don't forget to stretch after every single run. After working in physical therapy, I've seen lots o' injuries in men especially who don't stretch. For reals. Stretch it out, dude.
Disco
Oh yeah, heed Rine-Stone's advice. I had iliotibial band syndrome about three years ago from not stretching properly and increasing my mileage too quickly. Mileage wise, you'll be fine following your program. But definitely get your stretch on.
Kenzie
Yay Fuzzy!!! that sounds so great. And believe me - it can be done. The hard part, to me, is the training and sticking with it - if you do that, the marathon just becomes another long run - with over a million people cheering for you!!!! And yes - stretch, stretch, stretch. I am harboring this idea that perhaps i can get back out running a bit and maybe join you to give you some company - but what pace are you training at? (I may not be able to keep up with you!) Go Fuzzy!!!!!
Marathon Freak
Yes, you should be fine finishing your marathon with that training program and with everyone cheering you on. Here's another marathon training that a lot of beginner marathoner's use. Just my 0.02 worth :-)