And so it begins...

Today kicked off MCM2010 training. 3 miles down... 564 miles to go- but who is counting?

It is incredible to think that we will dedicate the next 18 weeks of our lives training for one race. Over those 18 weeks, I will run upwards of 567 miles--which is equivalent to running at an 8-minute mile pace for 3 days 3 hours and 36 minutes straight.

Why? At first, I registered for the Marine Corp Marathon because I thought: If my sister can do it....and my friends can do it...why can't I? I wanted to be able to tell people that I ran a marathon-that I successfully ran 26.2 miles. While I look forward to the sense of accomplishment that I will feel after crossing the finish line on October 31st, right now I am looking forward to the challenge. This training will be both physically and mentally challenging. As Lynn Jennings said "Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body." Fortunately, I have a lot of wonderful people supporting me through this challenge. And so I want to share with you my goals for the next 18 weeks:

1) To improve my speed and endurance

2) To overcome the mental block that I have always put before myself while running

3) To inspire others As many of you know, I will spend half of my training running with a group of homeless men from Emery House (a homeless shelter in NE). It has been such an inspiration seeing the impact that running has had on each of their lives and I hope to continue inspiring them each step of the way. We have actually encouraged some of them to begin training for a half marathon and I hope to be a real leader of that group.

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you puto into it."
-Oprah Winfrey