It's Official--The Quest is On

It's been a while since I've posted, but luckily I have no readership to disappoint. =)

I signed up for the 2009 Twin Cities marathon last week, so I'm officially in the running to attempt my four our marathon. During the past few months I've run regularly, but haven't been training as hard I probably should have to get in shape for the race. Last weekend after signing up for the race, I decided to run a half (13.1 miles) and I came in at around 2 hours 8 minutes with drinking time and stops due to traffic. A bit slow, but not terrible considering I hadn't run more than 10 miles since the 2008 marathon. After the first half I went into sustainability mode--a good idea for surviving a long run, but not one that will produce good times. I've come to the realization that training hard enough so that my sustainability mode produces a four hour marathon is my best bet. There's going to be a lull at some point, both physically and mentally--the trick is to make it so the lull is still decently fast, and to work past it as quickly as possible. I know I can grind out the last few miles at a faster pace, but getting through miles 10-23 while sustaining a good pace will be the key.