The North Face Endurance Challenge

I've never been a patient person. I'm really big into instant gratification, and when I get an idea in my head, I can't wait to accomplish it. That being said, Rock n Roll St. Louis was going to be my first full marathon ever. Notice how I said was, and not is? I was reading Runner's World last night, trying to get sleepy when I saw an advertisement for the North Face Endurance Challenge series. I usually flip past the adds without looking, but I actually stopped and looked at the page, and upon examining it I noticed that one of the cities hosting the race is Kansas City. I was too tired to get on the computer and look at the website last night to find out more details, but today after work I came home and checked everything out. I'm officially running my first full marathon on August 27 now! The training schedule I'm planing to follow is an 18 week plan, and since the race is 24 weeks from tomorrow that means I officially start marathon training in 6 more weeks. I have a few half marathons on my schedule this spring and summer though, so I'm going to have to modify my schedule to fit those races in.

I can't wait to start officially training to run a marathon. It's going to be a long hot summer of running, but I'm determined to get through it. I was even extremely ambitious and said I would finish the race in 4 1/2 hours, which is probably a long shot since I've yet to run a 1/2 marathon at that pace. I'll personally be thrilled to finish under 5 hours, but I didn't want to seem like too much of a rookie during registration...