It started with a plan

So I've had this idea in my head for awhile that I need to run a marathon before I turn 30. (Notice I said "need" and not "want" - there is a significant difference. You "need" food and adequate clothing - no one in their right mind "needs" to run a marathon. But I digress.) I don't know if it's some kind-of "turning 30 bucket list" but, regardless, it's loomed over my head like a giant black cloud at a BBQ, just waiting for the day I finally pick one. And seeing as how thirty is only 354 days away, I have little time to dawdle anymore - it's time for some decision making.

So back in April I decide Philly it is - it's close, it's decently flat and its in the fall so I have plenty of time to procrastinate train. I figure I have no shot of getting into New York City because of everything that happened last year and Philly is like the black sheep city of the East Coast anyway, so why not? So I sign up - one step closer to actually doing it.

Then May rolls around and I get an invite to run NYC for a charity. I hem and haw for roughly 3.4 seconds and take it.  I mean, really - it IS New York. There are reasons roughly 40,000 runners voluntarily sign themselves up for 26.2 miles of torture each year. And it's that very simple reason - it's NEW YORK.

So now I went from running one marathon before I turned thirty to two marathons - within two weeks of each other. I'm gonna need a lot of beers. . .