Let the training begin! I decided on my spring marathon and will be running the Nashville Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. I had it down to this one and the Louisville Derby Festival. It was a toss up, but I had to choose Nashville just because of the music and it being the 20th year there. I figured you can’t go wrong with the music and the crowds in Music City. Louisville was tempting with running into Kentucky Downs though. After reading through different comments, it looked like there wasn’t a whole lot of support in the last third of the race, so Nashville it is. By looking at the route, it is primarily in the city and over into Music Row and the music basically every mile, it was too hard to pass up.

I will probably end up making a week out of it and going in early as I have a lot of clients in the Nashville area and have some client meetings since I will be in the area. It only makes sense to make some meetings since I will be in the area.

The one thing that will be a challenge is the hills in Nashville. When I was there several months ago during the my Chicago Marathon training cycle, the hills were the real deal. Looking at the route, I will be running the same streets as I did in the fall. I will have to take that into consideration with my training in the next couple months.

I have pretty much limited myself to the gym and treadmill the last several weeks, but I was able to get out today with it being 38 degrees and get a 8.6 mile run in. It felt great being out in the fresh air and I was very consistent with my times at about 8:40/mile with the exception of one mile where I got caught up with some traffic at a stop light.

I will be meeting with a coach on Monday to get a game-plan together for my training for the next couple months and my goals going into 2019. I’m excited to see what he has to say and how he can help me get prepped for this race and a few others.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make the lottery for Chicago so I am still trying to decide on the fall. I will put my name in the hat for NYC, but with about a 16% chance of making it in, I’m not putting too much hope in that one. Assuming that I don’t make it, I will probably end up doing the Marine Corps in Washington, DC as I have heard great things about that one. In the event I don’t make it in there, I will end up in Indianapolis at the Monumental Marathon the first weekend in November.