Why Marathon?

Sept 22, 2008- I am a slightly overweight 42 year old auto mechanic. I am very goal oriented and want to improve my health and give myself a positive goal to aspire to. Two and half years ago (2006) I decided to do the Columbia Tower stair climb in Seattle. It was 69 flights of stairs and I trained for it for 3 months, by the time I ran the event I had lost 40 lbs. And climbed in :12:38. After that until now I have been somewhat sedintary. I took up Bicycle riding for a couple of years and did the Chilly Hilly bike ride and the McClinchy Mile in 2007. But after a serious crash on my bike and several near misses with passing cars I put up the bike and did not continue with any fitness related activities until last week. I had gained back 30 lbs of the weight that I had lost and the first time that I saw 220 on the scale I decided to take up some sort of fitness related activity. Running looked promising because I have more control of where I train and do not have to be on the road with other vehicles. The rub here is that I haven't ran since high school and my Army days. I started with a good pair of shoes and with the help of Fleet Feet in Bonney Lake I was fitted with a pair Etonics. They took the time to video tape my gait and make sure I had shoes to make running as pain free as possible. I have decided to make the Tacoma Marathon my goal which happens in May 2009. I have 30 weeks to make the transition from the couch to the finish line. I am following the 10K training schedule (10 weeks) and the picking up the Marathon training schedule (16 weeks) I decided to BLOG it for the accountability that it will require. Even if nobody ever reads these posts I will have the expectations for myself to enter my daily/weekly experiences here. Follow me here and see if I can do it.