15 and Counting

Today marks 15 weeks until the New York Marathon. I have been officially training for 1 week. Since it’s still triathlon season and I have 2 races to go, there hasn’t been much difference in my training yet, but it’s about time to start increasing the run mileage. On Friday, my “In training” shirt arrived in the mail. It’s a nice technical shirt and fits well. Brian says it looks cute. The picture is of the logo on the shirt.

I’m really excited for this race for a few reasons.

• The course – running over the Verrazano and Queensboro Bridges is going to be so cool! Running through the rest of the city is going to be pretty awesome as well.
• The spectators – New Yorkers are a really vocal and surprisingly friendly group of people, and apparently have no problems spending several hours on a Sunday hanging out on the sidewalks in front of their apartment buildings - or favorite bar, restaurant, or coffee shop – cheering on thousands of runners.
• The family – I have a lot of family in the area and a lot of the race goes through neighborhoods I am familiar with. My family is already planning where they will cheer for me. It looks like mile 17 is going to be the best spot, which is awesome because anyone who has run a marathon knows that you really need the spectator support later in the race. Brian will actually be there to cheer for me. This will be the first time he’s seen me run a marathon. He’s excited because he doesn’t have to get up early to see me race, and he will have lots of company.
• My birthday – the race is on November 4^th which is two days before my 37^th birthday. If I can find a comfortable tiara, I may have to wear it for the race.
• Ironman Florida 2008 – The marathon will mark the beginning of my Ironman year. It seems like an appropriate way to get started. Joey and Maggie are repeating their Ironman journey and I'm really excited to be sharing it with them.
  
• My health – it’s been a year of rebuilding the base and I am finally starting to feel really good. The plantar fasciitis also seems to be starting to resolve itself (keep your fingers crossed). Overall, I feel better than I did at the start of training for my other two marathons.

That’s all for now – I’ll keep you posted on how the training goes.