"You're in!...now make it even more meaningful"

...so reads the postcard I got in the mail today.

In what? Oh right... the organizers of the 2006 Chicago Marathon have accepted my entry... (yay!?) and maybe I want to raise money for a charity to make the run more "meaningful"?

Well, I'll have to think about that another time. Right now, what's on my mind is that it's 159-1/2 days til I take my place amongst 40,000+ other runners at the Chicago Marathon start line. Truth? I'm scared. Deeply frightened. My running "career" has consisted of three races (not including those track and field meets at Birchmount Stadium years ago as a youth in Scarberia), and none of which were more than 10K in the past year.

Did I mention I don't even run/train consistently?

So how did I, the admitted slacker runner, decide that this would be my goal? Sure, it's an excuse to go back to the Windy City for an easy vacation. But couldn't I go back to the land of deep-dish pizza and the Bulls without committing myself to a 26.2-mile (that's 42.2 kilometers to us Canadians, eh!)?

So what's driving me?

I just want to be able to one day say that I have completed a marathon. It's that simple. What's not simple, so I've found since I established this as a goal some seven months ago and convincing two pals to do the same, is getting mentally and physically prepped for the challenge ahead. This blog is potentially a pyschological motivational tool to get me out there -- "practicing" running as one friend's mom would say, hee hee -- because I really haven't been.

This journal is about my road to Chicago, in my head, on my body. I anticipate telling stories about what aches, what pains, but also my progress and milestones; I'll also talk about the choices I make (should I go to the bar tonight for wings and beer or run that 7-miles I'm scheduled to do?); and hopefully pick up some wisdom from fellow runners, or casual observers. Mostly though, I think I'll find out a lot about myself. And perhaps that's the most meaningful thing.