Training for my First Marathon

So.....training for a marathon is HARD!!
I know this probably sounds like an obvious statement, but I just had to say it. I'm training for my first marathon, so it's definitely a new experience.

Here's a little story about how I got here:
Growing up, my mom was always a super runner, doing marathons and being awesome. I never thought I could possibly ever run a marathon. When I was little, I HATED running. Absolutely hated it. When they made us do the mile run in 4th grade I wanted to skip PE. Don't even get me started on the 12 minute run! But I still looked up to my mom for running so many cool races.

When I was in high school, I injured my knee playing basketball and had to get 2 different knee surgeries for my meniscus, which the doctor told me looked like "swiss cheese." And he also asked me if I was really 17, not much older because of what the MRI of my knee looked like. I assured him that was my age, and was very worried I would not be able to play basketball or run again! (A little dramatic, but I didn't know!)

In college, I started to run for exercise and it became fun. I enjoyed going on runs and listening to music on my iPod. I played ultimate frisbee and we had to keep in shape, so I ran at practice and on the weekends. Sophomore year, my mom and sister (who became an amazing runner as well) convinced me to do a half marathon. I trained for this mostly by doing 5 mile runs. I did run one 7 mile run, but that was on accident because I got lost!

I went through college thinking that doing more than 13.1 miles would kill my knees and I would never be able to do it. Then, this year I ran my second half marathon in Tucson with my housemate Jen. After that, she convinced me to run a marathon with her in San Diego in June. She has since decided to do the half, but I'm sticking to running the full. I have decided it's one of my life goals to finally run a full marathon.

So, that's where I am today. I still have never run more than 13.1 miles, but on my training schedule my long run is 13 this week! And soon it will be 15...and eventually in June I will be running a full 26.2 miles! It's a very scary thought and I have decided that if I need to walk for part of it that's ok. I just really want to cross that finish line. And my mom has decided to run it with me, so we'll be crossing that finish line together.