and you may ask yourself, "well, how did i get here?"

Week 1 complete. I ran a little over 6 miles on Saturday, which was reassuring, as the shorter runs during the week seemed more difficult than they should have. My legs are still shaking the effects of their week off at the beginning of the month I think.

I suppose that before I get too much further along with this blog I should expound on how and why I decided to register for the race this fall, especially since as recently as a couple of years ago, running a marathon was still firmly situated in the "bad idea" column.

I ran three years of cross country in high school and was pretty fast, but I'm not sure how much I loved the running itself. I enjoyed the camaraderie, the Thursday night pasta dinners, owning spikes, the long bus rides with my Walkman (!), the adulation of the student body (wink), and the after-race endorphins, but I always kind of felt like running was what I put up with to have all the rest.

But since then, and particularly during the last few years, I have come to truly love running. I'm not exactly sure how it happened. Part of it is probably its link to a relatively simpler time in my life. There are stress relief and general exercise components there too. But whatever the reason, my heart or my shoes, since high school, with nobody telling me to run, I've kept running.

Now, if a fellow loves to run, eventually thoughts of a marathon will cross his mind, no? And while I found myself considering the idea from time to time, these thoughts were never serious ones until October of 2006, when Paul Skoch posted a 3:36 time in Columbus.

I was hanging out with Paul sometime in the spring of '06 when he told me he was planning on training for a marathon. I wouldn't characterize my reaction as outright disbelief, but 26.2 miles seemed so outrageous that I couldn't help but wonder how it would go. I didn't see Paul for a number of months, or at least didn't discuss running with him, so when I offhandedly asked him, "how did that marathon stuff turn out?" when I saw him later in the year, I was surprised to hear him reply, "it's in a couple of weeks." Without my knowledge a friend of mine had trained for a marathon, and when the time came to run it, the kid pretty much rocked it out. Now, I didn't witness any of Paul's training, any of the highs and lows, but just hearing about his experience made the whole thing appear very attainable, almost logical. I thought back to my one year of HS track, when Paul and I would amble around the track together during the tedious two-mile races. If Paul could run a marathon, I probably could too, right?

Like a young father who sees a minivan in his future, I began to get the sneaking suspicion that like it or not, running a marathon at some point was my destiny. By the beginning of this year, I figured I might try to run one in 2009. Then I got an e-mail from Dylana at the end of January. The two of us were running buddies during my year of residence in Cleveland Heights (2004-2005), and she had sent the message out to a bunch of her running friends, wondering if anyone was interested in the Chicago marathon this October.

So I was now confronted with a very real opportunity. There would be a group to run with, and Chicago is generally considered a pretty fun race (and a flat one, too). I let the idea roll around in my mind, but didn't feel too much pressure. It was still winter and I was still happily hibernating.

On April 22, Dylana sent another e-mail out to the group: open registration for the marathon was filling up. This caught me off guard. I was still woefully out of shape and had generally assumed that I would have more time to think about the decision (those that know me know that I prefer to have at least a decade to make important decisions). By the evening though, I had resolved to sign up. This seemed like maybe my best chance to run a marathon and I realized that I would never really be able to register for a marathon as popular as Chicago's from a position of full fitness. I started scouting out the site that night, making sure I was aware of all of the responsibilities that registration carried, but as it was getting late, I decided to actually register the next day.

The punch line here is pretty predictable, but at some point on the 23rd, open registration filled up totally. I had missed it by less than a day.

I immediately cast about for ways to correct this sudden change in fortune. One option would be to run the marathon through a charity, as these groups still had spots open, but the idea of raising funds was initially very intimidating. Columbus and Akron were also on the table, but I knew of nobody running or planning to run in these races. With no other clear course to take, I went to sleep frustrated at myself and generally down in the dumps.

The next day, after a night's rest and conversations with a handful of helpful folks, I signed up to run the race through World Vision. My reaction to the events of the previous evening had made it pretty clear that I wanted to run the Chicago marathon, so I looked, leapt, and registered. The only real difference between running through a charity and open registration would be the necessary fund raising, and I was (and remain) honestly more concerned about the running.

So that is how I came to register for a marathon. While open registration would have been the more convenient path, I think it's likely that the fund raising will only add to the whole experience. At the very least it will help keep me committed to the training. I should have my website set up in the next few weeks for interested benefactors.

Since mid-April I've been running two to three times a week to build up a base, until this past week when Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training schedule became my guide. Lead on, Novice 1 training schedule!

(Whew, that was pretty long. They're not all going to be this long.)