Go big or go home!

That's what my sister told me when I solicited comments from my Twitter and Facebook friends a few weeks ago about the Marine Corps Marathon.

So, this morning, at 11:36, I went big (and stayed home): I am officially registered for the 35th Annual Marine Corps Marathon on 10/31/2010 and I am SO PUMPED about it. Dad and brother (-in-law) Clay are also registered!

Technically, registration wasn't supposed to start until noon, but because I'm a fantastically OCD fool about this kinda stuff, I knew when it opened early at 11:30! (I clicked that refresh button a lot!) While I was registering, I was e-mailing and texting Dad and Clay so that they could get their registrations in early.

The MCM had 30,000 spots open today (they've already filled other spots with military registration and other early qualifiers) and it does typically sell out, although it usually takes a week or so, so I wasn't really worried that we weren't going to get in, but we all wanted to make sure we got in as soon as possible. It's the 5th largest marathon in the country. More than 11,000 people had signed up by 8 p.m. tonight!

Twenty of the 26 miles are flat and nearly all of the hills are within the first 8 miles. Unfortunately, it ends going uphill, but I've heard that it's a short hill and that you're so pumped by the crowd that your adrenaline pulls you through.

The course starts in Arlington and hugs the Potomac River for a lot of it. It goes by the National Mall and hits up a lot of the major D.C. sites, ending at the Iwo Jima Memorial. Because it's run by the Marines, it has really good organization and the Marines staff the course and the aid stations, which is very cool. Official Course Map.

Each runner is also "trackable" with technology. Spectators can sign up for e-mail or text message alerts that track the start and finish times as well as each 5K during the race. There's also an online map that tracks runners in real-time on a course map. Very cool stuff!

I am so incredibly excited to have my first marathon as a big time one. I'm really looking forward to having a big crowd of spectators through a lot of the course. Hopefully the weather will be good. The average high is 63° and the average low is 44° for October 31, which is an ideal temperature range for running.

The three of us are using the same training schedule and it was created by running coach Jeff Galloway (a former member of the U.S. Olympic Track Team and a contributor to Runner's World). This is the same guy who created the half-marathon training schedule that I used and that worked wonderfully. It's not too time intensive: just two 3-4 mile runs during the week and then a long run on the weekend. As the training distances get closer to marathon distance, the longest runs are three weeks apart. Long (and HOT) runs will be as follows:

• July 10: 12 miles
• July 24: 14 miles
• Aug. 7: 17 miles
• Aug 28: 20 miles
• Sept. 18: 23 miles
• Oct. 9: 26 miles

Because I'll be looking at long runs (2-4 hours at a time) in the hottest part of the summer, I'm planning to get up early on those Saturday (or Sunday) mornings to get the runs in (starting at like 6 a.m.). There's no way I could get through those during the day and no one wants to wait around all day to run 20 miles at 7 p.m. on a Saturday night! :-) I'll then spend the rest of the day floating in the pool or laying on the beach (I'm thinking there's a good chance that we'll be on the coast of NC on July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, and Aug. 28; completely coincidental, of course)! I'll definitely be glad not to have any 20° training runs or roads completely covered in ice and snow!

My ultimate goal is to finish and, of course, stay injury free while training. But I'm thinking right now that my time goal is to finish in under 4:30. That would involve keeping the same pace that I kept in the half marathon, but I expect to be significantly stronger and more fit by October 31, so it should be doable. I'll definitely know more about reasonable pace goals by the end of the summer. (The MCM has a 14 minute/mile pace requirement, which shouldn't be a problem barring any major crises.)

So, that's it for now. It's definitely marathon fever in my little corner of the globe! :-)