My first marathon! (still months off)

Since running cross country in high school, I've wanted to run a marathon, but it's always been a far-off idea, something that I'd do someday, but just not yet. I don't know what made me start thinking of it seriously recently, but I've registered for the Chicago marthon on October 11, 2009. I have just under 200 days to train, but Madison has finally thawed out from winter (with the exception of the 3 inches of snow we got last night), so I've already been running outside. Since the 200-days-till-race mark, I've run 17 miles, 9 of which were on a distance run through the snow and slush this morning. I'm pretty intimidated by whole thing, but also really excited for finally doing something that I've wanted to do for more than ten years.