The Second Marathon journey

James and I will be running the Carlsbad marathon Jan 24 TOGETHER. I ran NYC last year and he ran DC last March. It will be fun to start together and compare experiences on the same path. The kids talked us into it because there is a 1 mile kids' fun run in ...... Legoland on Saturday AND Grandma lives nearby.

I am still a little hesitant. Not sure if any marathon will measure up to the NY. Not sure if I really am ready to go through training again. The training is far more brutal than the marathon. Even though I did this once before there is still the unknown, the fear of "failure."

At the same time this is an opportunity to run like a "real" runner. I'm slow, I'll admit. VERY VERY slow. I trained for distance last time and I completed the whole 26.2 miles...slowly but intact. This time I dream of cutting an hour off my finish time or more realistically 30 min. I want to learn to let go emotionally at mile 15 and then move on. I want to internalize David Goggins' attitude of every morning taking a "suck it up pill" to get through the hard training I will need to do to successfully run faster. I want to build my mental stamina further. I want a stronger core. I want to lose a few pounds and actually look like a real runner.

I have completed almost the first week of an 18 week training plan with 3 days of speed work incorporated into the running. It's been hard. today especially running in the heat. Tomorrow is my first long run. 10 miles. That used to be nothing a year ago when I was training for NY. We'll see what I say tomorrow morning. I have 119 more days....