It's Columbus

This morning, I registered myself* and Joe for the Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon.  What a mouthful!  From now on, I'm going to go with "the Columbus Marathon."  A while back I posted that we'd be registering for the Detroit Free Press Marathon (or as I like to call it, "the Detroit Marathon").  We kinda slacked on registering and the fee shot up to $125--bummer.  Somewhat begrudgingly, I suggested Columbus instead, which is only $85 (yep, still too expensive to go for a run).  Although we won't get the cool opportunity to run into and out of Canada, we're saving $40!  Oh, wait.  We'll spend way more than that needing to stay at a hotel.  But it's the principle that matters, right?

I mentioned that I "begrudgingly" offered up the idea of running Columbus; I'm not crazy about Columbus.  What may come as a surprise is that it has little to do with my disinterest in o$Who.  I just feel like Columbus brings little to the table as far as being a "big city" in Ohio.  I've never spent time in Columbus and been sad to leave; I never want to road-trip it to Columbus just because; when driving through, I have no desire to make a pit-stop.  I'm sure that people who live in and near Columbus enjoy it, but for me, it just isn't a "cool" place to visit.  I know that lots of people feel the same way about Toledo, and that's fine.  The whole point is that I want to run marathons in "cool" places.  However, I know quite a few people who have run Columbus and/or are running it this year, so it'll be fun to share the experience.

Anywho, being registered makes me a lot more excited to train.  Rob wrote up a training plan for us to follow.  I'm looking forward to doing serious training this time around, having one marathon under my belt, knowing a bit of what to expect, and knowing what my shortcomings were the first time.  All of that considered, here are my goals in training for Columbus:

1. Learn the feeling of a pace.

2. Figure out fueling--before, during, and after a run.

3. Do speed work once per week.

What do you think?  What were your goals for your second marathon?  And if you're running the Columbus Marathon, what are your goals for it?

OH!  One last, but very important thing!  My friend, Natalie, sells really cool prints online.  She just made two awesome prints for marathoners.  I'm thinking about getting one for me, then one as a gift.  Check them out here and here!

*See how I used that?  "Myself" is a reflexive pronoun, meaning you are to use it when one does something to himself.  This means that phrases like, "I, myself, believe" or "I, myself, feel" are WRONG.