It starts today - March 8th, 2010

It's 2010 and it's the last year of my 4th decade. I never gave much thought about getting older but today on my lunchtime run I decided I'd take stock of what I had and write down the thoughts of the year I decided to run a marathon. So my goal is to write about each of my runs from now until January 9th, 2011 where I will take part in my first and last marathon at Walt Disney World in Florida.

I've never really wanted to run a marathon. I'm not even sure I can.

So you ask, why now? Well to be honest I'm not sure. It's not on my bucket list, in fact I don't actually have one. My life is great. I have a husband I adore and two beautiful little girls. I may not be in my dream job but that's only because I haven't figured out what that is, but I do have a job I like. I have an amazing group of friends and the best family you could ask for. So my incentive, basically, why not. I'm turning 40, it seems like a perfectly reasonable task to take on. 42.2kms in my 40th year.

I won't be running alone. I have a great friend to run with me. I shall try to keep her out of it, but no guarantees.

So what I plan to do.

My goal is to write about this journey. A personal safari using running as the outlet. I'm not new to running, I've already run 7 half marathons, so my base level is there. I've also taught a few learn to run courses at the Running Room in Ottawa, so I do know the basics.

Each day I run I will post how it went, where I ran, random thoughts created whilst running, give any advice to training and my play list. My iPod is always on shuffle, so the songs will be random and sometimes obscure. I won't be running everyday, but will comment on gym workouts occassionally. I will be honest and blunt hopefully making this journey of running easier because the idea of running for 5 hours straight has no appeal to me what so ever. At the end of this race all I want is my Mickey Mouse medal.

So the journey begins.

Todays run - March 8th, 2010

It was beautiful out. 7 degrees and sunny and for March in Ottawa, that's awesome! I ran the bridges in Ottawa. For those who live here, that's the Portage Bridge over to Gatineau and return on the Alexandra Bridge back into Ottawa. My starting point was the GoodLife Gym on Queen Street. The run is just under 5k and it took about 30mins. It was slow and steady. Much better than last weeks attempt which was painful and reminded me that yes parliament hill is actually a hill. The only thing today that struck me was to start this blog and I think that's a good place to begin. I did't run with my iPod because I left my arm band at home. It really does make the hills that much longer.

Until tomorrow