Marathon Season

Training is well underway for the Marine Corps Marathon which will be run the last weekend of October. I have decided to go with the Furman FIRST program which has me running three "key workouts" and two cross-training workouts a week (for more information, click on the Furman link under fitness). My primary cross-training workout is biking.

I'm on my third week of training in a sixteen week program. I'm feeling much faster, stronger and have more endurance than I did last year at this time training for my first marathon. Bike riding and preparing for and running in two spring triathlons have given me a leg up. I feel I'm on pace to qualify for Boston and have been meeting all my pace goals under the FIRST Boston qualifying program.

Will I run Boston if I qualify? I'm not sure, but I've been told that I'd be foolish not to. If I don't qualify for Boston, then I may run my first ultra-marathon, the HAT Run, in March 2008. It's a 50K (31.1 miles) trail run in Susquehanna State Park in Maryland.