Marathon Race Outlook (For Me)

I am looking at my marathon calendar to see what's ahead. It appears highly unlikely that I will be participating in the Jacksonville Bank Marathon this Sunday morning unless my boss unexpectedly offers me Saturday off at the height of the heavy Christmas season where I work. Besides, the weather forecasts indicate rain for that day. The Florida Marathon in Clermont (a few miles west of Orlando), scheduled for January 1, has been canceled. I had thought about entering it as my first marathon, but decided against it because of the very hilly, challenging terrain. I need to focus first on just covering the 26.2 miles! But that decision is moot, anyway, since that race has been wiped off the slate.

The Disney World Marathon on January 9 was something I had been considering, but I read some accounts of participants in previous years and decided against it. I don't see the point in trying to run in a group of 24,000 runners, and the convoluted way in which Disney World herded the participants around in the wee hours of the morning before the race didn't seem very appealing, either. So what's left with marathons around where I live?

On January 23, the Ocala Marathon will be held, about forty miles from Gainesville. This event will be easy to travel to and from. If I am in shape, I will run in it. On February 20, LifeSouth will once again stage its Five Points of Life Marathon in Gainesville. Last year I ran the half-marathon; this year it will be the full distance.

If all works out well for me with the Ocala Marathon (meaning that (1) I complete it and (2) I make a complete recovery) I may apply for some time off in early March to compete in the Snickers Marathon in Albany, Georgia.

And then the marathon season once again goes northward. Seeing that I have a job, a budget, and other obligations, I am not in a position to go flying willy-nilly around the country running various marathon events. But it would be cool, once I have the experience of actually completing a marathon, to pick out some remote, obscure place (like in North Dakota or Wyoming) and run one more marathon there. Then I'll reevaluate where I'm going with my running: I will either continue with the marathons or taper down my distance a bit.