So, marathon training. We’ve been hitting every run on the schedule. We’ve been doing what we’re supposed to do. We’ve been getting ready.

But what we’re getting ready for… has changed.

Our original plan, way back in the spring, was to do the Rock N Roll Marathon in San Antonio in November. Which we’re still planning on doing. In figuring out the training runs up to that point, though, we decided it would be good to register for another marathon a few weeks earlier in October during our twenty mile training week. It’s hard to stay motivated on those long runs, and we already know that we’ll need the extra motivation of a real race to get it done. Our plan was to run the twenty miles with water stations along the way and timing chips, then step off the course. That was the plan… but the more we thought about it, the sillier that sounded. Leaving the course with just six miles left? Why not just finish the course and make it a FULL marathon?

Why not, indeed! So, we were planning on running two marathons.

A few months later, we began to talk about what would come AFTER the race in November. Would we revert back to our flabby, lazy selves? If last year’s WDW marathon and our post-marathon running regiment were any indication, you betcha we would. And how! Determined that we would NOT do this to ourselves again this year, we set a new goal. Why not run the Cowtown Marathon (a longtime dream of mine) in Fort Worth in February?

Why not, indeed! So, we were planning on running three marathons.

Our training has been going well. As I mentioned in a previous post, we were BLESSED to have the opportunity to register for the Disneyland Half Marathon on the week we were to run 13 miles on our training schedule. We’ve been planning and getting excited about that, which has immersed us again in the RunDisney culture… which is a very dangerous culture, y’all. They started this whole marketing campaign a few weeks ago that revolved around the 2013 WDW Marathon, focusing on how it’s the 20th year of the marathon, how there’s a new course, a new medal, and on and on and don’t you want to be here and on and on… Frankly, I had dismissed the whole thing because we weren’t going to Florida this January. Period.

Then, they released the pictures of the medal. I still stood strong. We weren’t going to register. They released videos of the awesome new course. I still stood strong. We weren’t going to register. They slashed registration prices for just twenty-four hours. I started to relax my strong stance. Wes, sensing my Disney weakness (darn him!), swooped in and showed me how we could get free flights (WOO!), get the best deal on rooms that we’ve EVER gotten with WDW (WOO!), and run the race in January for next to nothing, financially speaking. Physically speaking, what was one more marathon, y’all? Based on that logic, I told him that if we were going to do this thing, we were going to go Goofy — we’d run the marathon AND the half-marathon the day before, earning ourselves all three WDW Marathon Weekend medals and exclusive bragging rights to a 39.3 mile accomplishment. (And earning ourselves a lot of aches and pains as well. Which I’m only now fully considering.) Why not go all in and be Goofy?

Why not, indeed! So, we’re now planning on running FOUR marathons and two half marathons in the next six months.

Sigh. This is what happens when the doctor tells your husband that he has to get fit or get medicated. It starts this whole ugly, vicious cycle!

Here’s to marathon training… and then some!