Last year was supposed to be my last marathon for a while and definitely was my last planned Marine Corps Marathon. Yet, here I sit, days away from running MCM again. While I'm still slightly unclear on how I moved from not wanting to run it to signed up, I know that once I signed up, I had a goal. My goal? To run the race with the mental strength I had last year, but the pace I had on my second marathon. To say I'm nowhere near that pace would be an understatement. I have no one to blame but myself. And I know I'll have fun at MCM (and in some ways it will be more fun because I won't be "racing"), but it's not going to be the race I would have liked for my final (for now) marathon. I'd love to go back and start my training over. … [Read more...]