[Ben E Lou]

I did a 20-miler in under 3 hours around 6 weeks ago, got sick a few days later, and haven't been strictly on the marathon training program since then. Issues with injury, illness, holiday travel, and lack of focus aside, I can also say that based on the marathon training I've done, I think I can state pretty conclusively that at this stage of my kids' life, at least, marathons (and probably even halfs) just aren't for me. The bottom line is that despite my wife's support and encouraging me to do it, I simply don't like leaving all the burden on her and leaving my family for that long on a weekend. Maybe in a couple of years when early weekend mornings aren't such a burden I'll give it another shot.

I'm still running regularly (3-4 days most weeks, about to push that to 4-5 most likely), but in the short-term I'm swearing off of race-specific training and just focusing on fitness, body fat control, etc. I might do a 5K or 10K here and there. (There's a very popular 10K in Charleston in April that I'm eyeing.) But I think the right call for now is to stay away from trying to train for any long races until my youngest's sleeping patterns change again--or until she's old enough to play on her own or with her sister for a while in the mornings.