Virgin blogger....

Yep, sucked you in didn't I? You were pretty sure that this was going to be one of the millions of "dirty" blogs out there weren't you? It is a dirty blog...if your idea of dirty is muddy shoes, sweaty singlets, and salt residue covered extremities. The kind of dirt that comes from a running a full marathon. Welcome to my world.

So...my genius self has been lurking through the site, checking out all of the other great blogs...and as I'm doing so, I'm thinking to myself "self, this d0esn't look so hard, and what a great tool to use to track your progress towards the fall running season's goals."

Of course, I am for all practial purposes, computer illiterate. So having convinced myself that this will be easy, it will probably be an extremely difficult undertaking. But I digress.

The entire purpose of this blog, in addition to supporting my sometimes brillant, yet at other times completely delusional musings, is to make myself more accountable. I've set my fall racing season's goal as a sub 4:00 hour finish at the famed Chicago marathon. To me, this seems an attainable goal, considering that I ran St. Louis in 4:19 this past April and did absolutely no speedwork while training for St. Louis.

A sixty minute improvement in my finishing time from St. Louis in 2005 to St. Louis in 2006 has only given me more hunger for what I can accomplish if I really put my mind to it and train as hard as I need to. I've always been a steady middle to back of the pack runner, so I'm excited to see just how fast I can become with the right amount and kind of practice.

Unlike some of my friends, who run for enlightenment and better self awareness (both of which I truly admire and think are wonderful goals), I run for selfish reasons. I run because I love the Zen-like feeling of knowing that my only competition is myself. I run because I love the look that people give you when you tell them that your weekend plans include a fifteen miler. I run because I love the idea that I'm tough enough to do something that a lot of people can't. And I run because I love being an athlete, which is something I never was as a child and teenager.

So, my official training starts in two weeks or so, but I've already started my summer speed workouts with the local running store and I'm already starting the feel the itch to put in a long run...so hopefully this will be a good season, and hopefully by journalling myprogress it will help keep me on track.

Bring on the miles!