Marathon??

So I have been considering doing a marathon for a little over a year now, I thought about it after completing my first half marathon last year and was living on that high. I was struggling a little with my knee yet that I hurt skiing and I felt that I had plenty of time to complete one and let it go. Then after spectating for the Fox Cities Marathon last year in September I knew I wanted to do one, and soon!

I began building up some mileage and began to get my body ready to Marathon train starting in January. I was planning on losing 5 pounds each of the next 3 months so I would be at my goal weight when I began and would not have to worry about losing weight while training and also have a good eating schedule figured out by then. In December I began to have horrible pain on the inside of my left leg and went to a free injury screening at Fleet Feet. They thought it was nothing major and to let it rest for a bit, I bought new shoes and started to run again after a week off.

The pain came back and I decided I had to get it checked out. Turns out I had shin splints in the inside of my leg where the muscle meets the bone. I was instructed I had to stop running by the sports medicine doctor and referred to a PT, who then proceeded to tell me I had to take 4 weeks off of running at least and then another 5 weeks to get me back to running for 30 minutes!! So the marathon immediately went out the window. I was very disappointed but I didn't want to just stop working out. So I cross trained my heart out biking and swimming and bought some Jillian Michaels DVD's to help with strength training.

That was the time I decided to try the Sprint Triathlon during the summer as I was already half trained for it and just had to put it together. I completed my first 2 weeks ago and have another one next Saturday! During my time off I actually became a faster runner! I was amazed by the fact I had taken about 1 - 1:30 minutes off my mile times depending on the distance I ran. I was at 9 - 9:30 minute miles and was thrilled!! I've done a 5K and 10K so far this year and have easily PR'd both races and was planning on doing the Fox Cities Half Marathon this September. I didn't want to train for the marathon this summer as I'm getting married on August 24th and my 20 miler would have been that weekend, and I thought that would put alot of stress on me that I just didn't need.

But, now that the idea has been put in my head thanks to some friends, I am planning on training for the Whistlestop Marathon in Ashland, WI on October 13th. Things that are positives about this course, which I looked at last year for a possible half marathon:

• The bulk of the race is on a limestone covered trail, so this will be great on the knees!
• The entire course is basically flat or downhill, but not a drastic change overall (Start is 1150 ft. and End is 640 ft.)
• It is during fall and should not been ridiculously warm weather as it is located in northern WI
• The views should be fantastic with gorgeous fall colors
• I will likely have another first marathoner to run with, thanks to Sarah for putting this one in my head!
• I get $5 off since I'm a member of the Pacesetters running group so it would only be $70 for the marathon
• It's touted as the Upper Midwest Fall Classic Marathon so it has to be awesome, right?
• You get a cool dufflebag, and of course shirt & medal

So I'm going to test out this week with the miles according to the Marathon Plan I created from Hal Higdon's Novice 2 and see if my IT Band will cooperate. If yes, I will proceed and I will be going for it!

Anyone else have any interest in doing the half or full marathon for this one?