Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 17 Weeks

Training at T Minus 17 weeks (Sept 12-17)

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T Minus 17 weeks (Sept 12-17):

Miles ran:  22 (11mi, 6mi, 5mi)

Miles scheduled: 25

Cross training: Pilates x 2, Yoga x 1

My weight:  X-1 (up 2 lbs from last week, 1 lbs lost overall since training began)

Total miles run since training began: 122.44

Running song o’ the week:  Midnight Blue by Lou Gramm. Gotta love old school, 80s pop/rock.

Audiobook: Still on Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Marathon Greatness by Scott Jurek.  I’m about 1/3 of the way through it. I like the shorter chapters (10-15 minutes rather than 45 minutes like in 7 Habits), and I’ve been switching back and forth between music and audiobook on my runs. A lot so far has been about Jurek’s childhood which is not quite as interesting to me as the races and nutrition, but I think it’s about out of that now.

General Notes: Dreams of a running a marathon can be halted my many things: an injury, changes in life that make training impossible, lack of funds to get to the marathon you want to run. My marathon dream was almost completely derailed by something the running books don’t tend to discuss: Seventh grade math.

It’s become apparent, after only a few weeks in her math class, that we are not going to be able to take Kid #1 out of school for an entire week in January as we had planned – a family trip to Disney centered around the marathon. It’s just a terrible week – she would return to school just a few days before the semester finals, and would be hard-pressed to successfully catch up in time for the quarter to end.

So hubby and I looked at options. Should I go by myself, flying into Orlando on Saturday and out on Sunday? Could we work it out where both he and I go for a short weekend?  Should we try to take the family Disney trip the week before the marathon rather than the week after, giving our daughter more time to turn in work when she returns?

Should I bow out altogether?

Honestly, even after the paying the huge, non-refundable Disney race fee, that would still be the least expensive option overall.

No answers yet; still weighing all the options. We’ll see.