Marathon Training

I am all signed up for Marathon Training with TeamFootworks!

It is a 26 week training program for either the Disney Marathon on January 8th (me!) or the ING Miami Marathon on January 29th.  On the 29th I will run the half marathon since it is only two weeks after Disney, but it is also the most beautiful course ever and I do not want to miss out.

TeamFootworks is based out of South Miami and trains hundreds of people a year to run a half or full marathon.  They are expecting 800 people over the course of the fall.  Included in the program are pace groups and team leaders for the Saturday long runs, water stations along the course for our longer runs, clinics on various running topics and the hospitality tent with our own bag check, free massages and food & drink on the day of the ING Miami Marathon & Half Marathon.  They are even planning on running the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon as a group, which is perfect because I was planning on running that with my co-worker (Trish we need to sign up!). 

I knew I wanted to join a running group this fall as I train for 26.2 miles.  Motivation will be needed to get through the 18, 20 and 22 mile runs.

I attended the info session last Thursday night and it was endearing to hear the concerns of people in attendance who are running their first half marathon.  Several wanted to make sure they were in the slowest pace groups to ensure they could keep up (you know they are gonna), some wanted to know how to figure out their pace, some had no idea what a singlet was (we get one as part of the group) and some didn't even know you get medals (um, it's all about the medal).  Remember that feeling when you first started running and had absolutely no idea about anything?  It is so sweet... to be that naive again!  It will be nice to see people accomplish something on race day that they never thought was attainable.

Training starts August 6th, but I will be out of town on vacation for the first two weeks of the program.  No worries though, I know I will keep up with my running over vacation because I have the Beach to Beacon 10K and a long run in Maine all planned out for that week.

Can't wait for my first group run on August 20th though... let's get this party started... 26.2 miles I am coming for ya!
P.S. 40 days until the Disneyland Half Marathon... yup I am THAT girl!