Grandma’s Marathon is rated high in all areas of evaluation in the Marathon & Beyond Publication. I’ve always wanted to do it. Each year, however, I have logged onto the website only to find out that the race is already sold out. Grandma’s Marathon takes registration by mail only. You can send the race a SASE in order to have an entry form mailed to you when they first come available. The forms cannot be downloaded from the website until 4 days after they are mailed.
My entry form for the Grandma’s Marathon came on Saturday. At the time that I mailed away for the entry form I was not totally sure that my husband and I would be running The Avenue of the Giants Marathon. Since that time, I began my 18-week training program and have been set towards that goal. On Saturday, I noticed the envelope sitting on the counter. I sat and stared at the entry form. I remembered hearing that all of the hotels were selling out. I thought, “If I can’t get a hotel room, then why try to get into the race”. Well…I DID get a reservation so I took that as a sign. I completed my entry form and mailed it in priority delivery. I’ll just see what happens.
Now my head swims with thoughts on what scenario should play out. I could run BOTH marathons. I’ve done two marathons 5 weeks apart. Other than giving me two chances to BQ, I can’t see the benefit. I could run a half-marathon at the Avenue and then support my husband during his marathon. I could only run Grandma’s. What’s a girl to do?
Today I did 50 minutes on the spin cycle. Since I forgot my iPod, it wasn’t as fun as last time. I got a good workout; I was dripping with sweat. I did a bit of standing climbs and a couple of 90-second sprints. The schedule is starting to build which means I’m going to have to get creative about how I fit it all in. Of course if I am doing a June marathon, I’ll need to revise my training to be sure that I don’t peak too soon. I’m tormented.