So I made the decision to run a marathon a month in 2012 to raise awareness and funding for the Dream Team Project, and I went public with it on Lou Mongello’s podcast a couple of weeks ago…so there’s no backing out now!
My year of insanity begins a week from Sunday, down in Walt Disney World, where I am all set to run the marathon on January 8th. This will be my 4th Walt Disney World Marathon, and it’s an event that I believe gets better each and every year. Yes, my day will begin at 3am – and yes, a majority of the mileage I’ll log will be along WDW’s roadways with little overall ambiance – and yes, I’ll be really tired afterward…so much so that I’ll probably doze off while I ride Tower of Terror later on in the day. HOWEVER, Walt Disney World is one of my favorite places to spend my time. Being able to say that I visited – on foot – all four theme parks before lunchtime is a pretty cool statement! 
Training has been lackluster lately, to say the least. A combination of travel for work and my usual bout with utter laziness has resulted in me feeling not quite 100% for the upcoming challenge. Bottom line: I’m nervous. I want to kick this year-long marathon of marathons with a really solid performance…I just hope that the work I’ve done up to this point is enough to get me through.
I’m planning to put in some serious work over the weekend. Of course, this is supposed to be the time where I tone down my workouts in preparation for the big day. However, I am…..well…..not-very-smart. I am looking at this weekend as me cramming for a final exam in high school. (Crap – I was a solid D- student…so you can see just how well cramming worked out for me in the past…)
I feel the need to “cram” for this “running exam” because lately I’ve felt like The Tool has returned, and has perched himself once more on my left shoulder whispering sweet stupidity into my ear as I slog around the Central Park outer loop. For those of you who don’t know who I am referring to when I mention “The Tool”, I’ll re-post my earlier writing later on today to provide the necessary detail. Here’s the Crib Notes version: The Tool is the imaginary 3” tall little annoying, distracting, negative schmuck that reminds me of my weaknesses and lack of talent. He’s the virtual embodiment of my self-doubt. Only this time, he appears to have come out of hibernation stronger and more effective since my last encounter with the tiny turd. It’s almost as if he visited Balco and started juicing negativity steroids. (Oh yeah – I just made a Balco reference – never thought I’d get to do that….I feel somewhat cooler now…). I think I’ll call this tiny putz “Tool 2.0”.
Something tells me this is going to be a loooooong 12 months……
