Dublin City Marathon

This year I'm going to try and run a marathon! (Note: I said run, not race.) I've entered for the 2007 Dublin City Marathon on Monday 29th of October. This is my first time, I'm 36 and not an athlete, so if I finish it in under 4 hours I'll be delighted.

I've actually entered all of the following series of races, so there's a gradual buildup:

Date	Distance	Race
Saturday 14th July 2007	5mi / 8km	Adidas Irish Runner 5 mile
Saturday 18th August 2007	10mi / 16km	Adidas Frank Duffy 10 mile
Saturday 22nd September 2007	13mi+ / 21km+	Adidas Dublin Half-Marathon
Monday 29th October 2007	26mi+ / 42km+	Dublin City Marathon

"Why?", you might ask...

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get up at 7am one morning and go out running before work. If I can do that, I maybe have the discipline to keep up the training. I can do 10 miles already in about 90 minutes and feel fine the next day. I'm doing about 20 miles a week on average right now.

I entered a couple of weeks ago, (right after the morning run), and I've been telling people about it, so this is probably old news to my readers (all 3 of them - Hi Honey, and hello Mum & Dad). Telling people about it is a part of my motivation strategy - I'll feel stupid if I pull out.

I'll follow up this post in a few days with some recommended reading links on running and my 5 day a week, 19 week, training plan. I just have to write it up first. (I'm not just drawing up plans and writing blog entries - I ran 8 miles today.)

Wish me luck...