To marathon or not to marathon...

Can't believe I'm thinking about going for it. After my recent half, I was thinking of retiring from racing further than 10k, but... My brother's moving to Columbus OH to start grad school in the fall, and the Columbus marathon is very flat-- unlike the half that just whipped my butt. I'd have a free place to stay, and it's only a 4-5 hr drive away. Hmmm.

Also, one friend just finished her 3rd marathon last weekend, and another friend is doing his first this weekend. Peer pressure's kicking in...

What to do? (Other than go ahead and start increasing my mileage, just in case...) :D

Columbus is a *really* fun race. Tons of crowd support, entertainment every couple of miles, big enough that you're always running with plenty of others, not so big that you're tripping over their feet.

They normally sell out, but not super early, so you've got some time to think about it, increase your mileage just in case ;) and see how those longer slogs feel to you, just keep an eye on registration when it gets to be late July or so.

Only caveat is that the weather has been abso-frickin-lutely perfect the last three years. That doesn't happen in Ohio in October. So they're probably due for wet and miserable... :p