To Marathon or Not To Marathon

That is the question.

I’ve been running regularly for over a year. This calendar year, I’ve averaged 15-25 miles a week. I’ve completed 3 (hopefully 4 by noon on Saturday) half marathons.

But am I ready to make the leap?

This is the one that’s on my mind. May 6, 2012. I would start training around the first of the year, and there’s a scheduled meet-up of an online women’s running group I’m a part of, so I would definitely have company.

Pros:

• Training in the winter means that I don’t have to get up a 5 am to get my runs in before it’s 8000 degrees with 100% humidity.
• Joe has shown interest in the half, so we could potentially do some parts of training runs together.
• Training groups for Country Music Marathon in Nashville tend to start up around that time as well, so I could look forward to group runs.

Cons:

• Time - I work 6 days a week and am on house-call every other weekend. Getting called to a death in the middle of a 16-mile run is not ideal.
• Training in the winter is cold and potentially rainy and/or sleet-y and sometimes dark.
• What if I get injured?
• Running a marathon is hard.

Other things:

• It seems like everyone is doing it, and after Chicago, reading people’s race recaps is so inspiring.
• It would be a real test of my mental and physical strength, for better or for worse.

Help, please? Encouragement? Warnings? How to prepare to run a marathon?