How I got to be on the edge of (Glory) my first marathon.

First of all a huge thank you to everyone who left me such great, thoughtful and awesome comments on the post where I asked for first time marathon help.  I am loving it and plan to reread all of them the night before the marathon.

The journey to a marathon wasn't really one that 5 years ago I thought would embarking on..ever.  I had wrote off anything over an hour of running as too hard on my body sometime after college.  I ran for fitness.  I ran to help manage my weight and because I enjoyed it.

 I thought people who ran in road races would all be really competitive and uber fast.   I didn't think I would fit in.  I didn't think I was fast enough.  I didn't think I would enjoy it.

Sometime around 2002 maybe I ran a 5 mile womens run and was surprised at how well I did.  I think I ran it in 42 minutes or something like that.  I was too timid to enter more races though and I didn't know anyone else you did.

I kept running for fitness.  Then I got married, pregnant, quit the gym, moved out to the country, pregnant again and found that I needed an outlet.  I needed something for me.  Something to help me decompress.  With the encouragement of a friend at work I signed up for a 5 mile race.  I  surprised myself with how fast I did it, but never did anymore races that year.

The next year I did every race I could locally.  5ks, 5 miles and my first 2 half marathons. I was hooked!  It didn't matter that I wasn't the fastest, although I was faster than I would have guessed!

I considered a marathon still out of my league, maybe once both kids were in school.  Mostly I think I still just thought the distance was too crazy for me. Last year I again did every race I could enter locally and did my first 10k, and two more halfs, 

We had a very mild winter and it allowed me to build and maintain a very good base. I did long runs of 12-14 miles just for fun.  They felt good, they felt easy. I loved doing them.

I also started to listen to Marathon Training Academy.  One of their podcasts was about overcoming obstacles in training and finding the time to train.

I also have to insert here that I started my blog in April of 2011 and I have to admit reading about everyone else's marathons was INCREDIBLY inspiring.  If all these woman can do it, why not me too?

Then one day my little sister watched the kids and I went for a new PDR and ran 17 miles.  It wasn't easy, but it felt strangely..doable. 

Suddenly 26.2 wasn't so intimidating.  Maybe, just maybe I could do a marathon.  I found out my parents would be in Missoula the same weekend of the marathon.  I talked it over with my husband and then signed up.

I rearranged my long runs so they were during the week instead of on the weekends.  This was huge!  I was able to trade kids with my sister in law so that she would watch kids in the morning and I in the afternoon on a mutual day off.

Now here I am 5 days away from it!  I am ready.  I am confident about running the distance, just wondering how it will all play out!

This is obviously a very abbreviated version, but you didn't come here to read a book.

What things helped inspire you to run your first marathon?