The calm before the storm

We're in the thick of summer here in Pennsylvania and I am well into my marathon training for the fall. Luckily, as we enter yet another heat wave, I have an easy running week ahead of me: my normal mid-week runs followed by a Saturday "long" run of a mere 6 miles. Can you imagine? 6 miles is my long run. It's awesome!

But after that, it's crazy time. Due to my own overzealous love of the marathon, some lucky and unpredicted opportunities, and my desire to run with out of town friends, I'm about to head into a frenzy of fall running. Check out the weekends I have ahead of me:

August 29: 26 mile training run
September 5-6: Dumbo Double Dare at Disneyland (19.3 miles of running)
September 12: Bird In Hand Half Marathon and 5K (That's right, I'm doing both in hilly Lancaster County)
September 19: Relief! only a 6 mile run!
September 25: DIVA 1/2 marathon in Virginia (with my friends from Skirt Sports)
October 3: New Hampshire Marathon (HILLS HILLS HILLS)
October 10: 14x1 mile repeats for MCM training
October 18: rest ( 6 miles)
October 25: Marine Corps Marathon
October 31: Rock N Roll Half Marathon Philadelphia
November 7: rest (6 miles)
November 14: Rocky Balboa 10K run
November 22: Philadelphia Half Marathon
November 28: rest
December 5: Rehoboth Marathon


In the upcoming 15 weeks I plan to run 3 official marathons and 1 unofficial marathon, 5 half marathons, 2 10Ks and a 5K

That's nuts. That's more than people do in a whole year.

And I'm nuts because instead of being petrified about all of this I'm actually looking forward to it.

A lot.

So much so that I haven't completely eliminated the possibility of adding another marathon (upgrading from 1/2 at Philadelphia) but I am hoping that I remain sane enough not to do that.

I'm hoping that my training has given me a great base so all of this activity won't kill me physically and that I will have enough distractions and each event to keep me mentally focused.

It's going to be a wild ride, for sure, and I plan to chronicle it all right here.

Now, I'm off to find myself a virtual race so I can get a real medal for the 26 mile training run I'm scheduled to do soon. I ran that far last summer and all I got was a date with the ice bucket challenge when it was over and this year I'm hoping for an upgrade!