Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Case For and Against Running a Fall Marathon

The Case For:
  1. After running a 3:39:47 in the Poconos I want to see what I can do on a flatter and faster course. 
  2. A year is a long time to wait to run another marathon. If I don't run one in the fall, my next marathon would not be until Spring 2011.
  3. I have a cause that is near and dear to my heart that I would like to raise money for. When I ran The New York City Marathon in 2007 and The Marine Corps Marathon in 2008, I fund-raised for a different organization and raised about $8,500.
  4. I like the training. 
  5. After slogging through the hot and humid summer months, the cooler fall weather would provide a burst of energy just at the peak of my training. 
The Case Against
  1. Training for the Poconos took a lot out of me. Since I'd be training with the same intensity, I'm not sure I want to put my body through it again.
  2. Training for a marathon does put a strain on family life. Mrs. and Lil Ansky are incredibly supportive of me and they want me to continue running marathons. However, as I said, training wears me out. With the summer months ahead, I don't want to say no to weekend plans because I have to run long ,will be too tired, or beat up from a long run.  Shorter distance races, including the half marathon, don't take as much out of me.
  3. While I wouldn't be missing any weekend long runs, I would miss several mid-weeks runs for the Jewish holiday "season" that falls out in September.
  4. As I said in my previous post, I miss the social side of running. Sometimes I want to run just for the sake of running without having to execute a specific workout.
  5. A fall marathon would involve additional travel costs which I can't really afford right now.
  6. Heat and humidity are not good for my asthma. Last year I struggled mightily to complete speed workouts and tempo runs felt harder. 
Even though there are more cases against than for a fall marathon, I still have very mixed feelings. I know I have to decide soon before prices go up or  the race fills up. Stay tuned.

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