And Jesus cried, "THIS IS SPARTA!"

Last week I applied for the marathon. Not the DeGrassi Sunday afternoon marathon, of which I’ve completed plenty, but rather the 2009 ING NYC Marathon. You pay $11 for a 30% chance to get in – a lottery of sorts (or, by definition). The winners get to pay more and then suffer for months and months and months. There might be a free t-shirt along with the additional $138 fee. All in all it’s a good deal. People have all sorts of reasons why they run them. I’m in it for the free rubdowns at the finish line.

My goal has always been to make an attempt at the marathon before I reached 30, a round number, and the age at which Jesus was baptized by John (the Baptist) thus starting his ministry. Jesus traveled to Marathon to fight along 300 Spartans, or close enough. For a while I didn’t think I would be ready, but after years of music blogging and growing fat (correlation or causation - only SCIENCE! can tell), I surprised myself by losing 20 pounds in 2008. (As much as one can be surprised by working diligently at something for 10 months.)

For my New Year’s resolution (I'm 1 for 2) I reactivated my NYRR membership so I’d be eligible for guarantee 2010 entry if I don’t make it in 2009. Unfortunately I’m obsessive and I worry that my new obsession/motivation won’t last for 20 months. Eight months – surely, but 20 is a long time to motivate and train. Hell, I can train, get fat again, and retrain in that time.

In the meantime, I’m building my weekly mileage up to 20 if I do get accepted. I extended my long runs to 8 miles on Saturday, rested Sunday, and did another 4 on Monday. I’d like to have a couple more runs before an 8K race on Saturday -the dramatic mileage, of course, being in Canadian metrics. Then rest again on Sunday while I watch some DeGrassi, the highest metric of Canadian dramas.