Publix Georgia Marathon - The Plan

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I feel funny calling this a plan since this is probably the furthest from a plan that I have ever had going into a race.  The plan in a nutshell is, run and enjoy.... with a twist.  The twist is that I am not running the Publix Georgia Marathon, but will in fact be dropping back to the Half Marathon at the Expo.

I have thought about this a long time, called all my lifelines, and yes even polled the audience here, on the 26.2 Quest Fanpage, and even on Daily Mile and I have decided that I will play it safe and drop back to the half marathon distance.  This was not an easy decision and I did flip flops throughout the process that would make any politician jealous, but ultimately I put pride aside and have decided on the 13.1 instead of the 26.2.

There will be plenty of marathons in the future that I will be better prepared for.  Marathons that I can approach the starting line with confidence - both the confidence that I have trained sufficiently and that I am injury free.  This one was not meant to be my third marathon, although I still did learn a lot in the process of training for it.

I am nearing a week of rest in that I have abstained from any and all running.  my thigh was telling me it simply had enough and it needed some rest and recovery.  I will be heading out for a test run in the next couple days and am a little bit nervous in what I will find.  There is still a slight possibility that I will completely pull from the race if my thigh hasn't gotten any better, but I see that as only a remote possibility at this time.

With race day less then two weeks away the excitement is definitely in the air and all over the social media landscape.  I will be volunteering for packet pickup on Friday at the Expo and am really looking forward to it.  I volunteered at the mile 18 water stop in the 2009 Georgia Marathon, known then as the ING Georgia Marathon, and even though it was a long, tiring, and cold day, I still look back on that day with fond memories.

I have not yet decided what pace I will run the half marathon at, but I will most likely not try to set any new records.  My initial thoughts are that I will run it similarly to how I have run my recent long runs, but the runs I get in between now and then will further decide race day pacing.

Like I said, in a nutshell - Run and Enjoy!

Remember, today is your last day to enter to win a pair of MY RUN Movie tickets!