I think now it's official...

http://www.waddellandreedkcmarathon.org/
I've been wavering on committing to the KC Marathon on Oct. 18th for well more than a month until this morning when friend and neighbor, Marie, and I started our 13.5 mile adventure at 5a.m. I met Marie in graduate school way back in 2002 at the Edwards Campus in Overland Park. When Jason and I moved up north, Marie and I began running together on a fairly regular basis. We then started having children of our own and in between, ran here and there when we could. We ended up moving into the same neighborhood weeks apart just last summer and in March, after Kate was born, I joined her and another neighbor, Mary for daily 5am runs. Another neighbor, Amy (who had a little girl just a couple of weeks before Kate was born) has also joined us. They have been an amazing accountablity factor in getting me out of bed in the early mornings to help work off the baby fat over the past months.

I didn't honestly think I was ready to commit to a full marathon until I could prove to myself I was in shape enough to handle some longer runs. This morning was a test passed...and both Marie and I are tired and sore but we didn't complain, didn't feel like we were going to pass out or that we needed to walk at any point so I think we are both ready to officially register. I've also been a bit hesitant due to the freakishly weird phenomenon of registering for marathons and then suddenly finding out I was pregnant. This happened when I qualified for the NYC Marathon, it happened right after I registered for the Boston Marathon after qualifying in the KC Marathon in 2002, It happened last spring when I registered for KC Marathon to take place last fall. So, as you can imagine, I'm skittish....despite the odds of that happening having dramatically decreased after Jason's *ahem*...procedure.

Now, I'm not competitive anymore whatsoever...so this is just a "do it just to do it" quest. Jason has been my biggest cheerleader in agreeing to help me with the time commitment involved with the long runs necessary to prepare. He always understood my passion for running when most people think I'm simply crazy...but I even think that of myself from time to time. So here we go...I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

2002 KC Marathon...wow...look how young my little nieces and nephew are!

P.S. There's also a Kid's Marathon with free registration, free medal and free food. Kids complete the final 1.2 miles. Not sure if Jonathan would be interested, but he loves to run, so perhaps he'll complete his first race at the ripe old age of 3! We'll see!