I mailed my application and payment for the Cleveland Marathon today, so I guess I'll be eating my "I'll-never-do-another-marathon" words in May.

I printed out the trusty Hal Higdon training plans -- marathon for me, the 1/2 marathon for the husband (who swears he's getting back to running in the new year). Found a blank 2007 calendar and wrote our daily workouts on our new "road to Cleveland" training calendar.

Funny thing is, I'm already doing more mileage than the training plan outlines -- except for the really long runs -- so looks like all I will need to do is follow the Sunday long run schedule.

God (and Mother Nature) willing, I will never have to do them on the treadmill. Hopefully we'll either have a mild winter -- or a really wicked-cold one (running on hard-packed snow is no problem, slush is a huge problem).

I'm kinda of excited about running this winter, now. It will be a challenge, but with a definite goal in mind, I will not be able to wimp out.

Just what I needed -- a fence to swing for.