Up until Sunday I've been taking a pretty cavalier approach to this Cleveland Marathon business. Maybe I've been in denial (I have yet to book a hotel room), but this sucker is approaching fast. This weekend my marathon training build-up started.

I'm used to doing 10-milers on the weekends -- I like to stay in shape to do half marathons whenever the urge strikes me (as if there are a lot of them around here), but this weekend my marathon training schedule (printed from www.runnersworld.com) called for a long run of 13 miles on Saturday. I haven't run that distance since the fall.

My hubby's coyote hunting (don't even get me started on that) trumped my planned long run on Saturday, so I pushed it to Sunday -- which was, of course, bitter cold. I went out with every intention of running outside. I got 1/2 a mile from home when the weather forced me to turn back. I guess I'm getting soft in my old running age. I used to be a die-hard, anything-goes outdoor runner, now, I'm more willing to give in and retreat to the treadmill in my basement.

I toyed with the idea of just doing 10 miles -- after all, what's a few more miles and, well, I've got plenty of time to do long runs yet, right?

But, like most runners, I'm hell-bent on following the schedule to a T. If it says to run 13 miles, dammit, I'm running 13 miles.

So, yes...I did 13 miles on my treadmill and it was painfully boring. The only saving grace was that I stayed late at work on Friday (in anticipation of having to do a long run on the treadmill) downloading all kinds of cool songs to my iPod and burning up all my Christmas iTunes gift cards.

I bought music across the board -- from the Dixie Chicks to Stevie Wonder to Motley Crue to Steve Windwood, K.T. Tunstall and Chicago. And, the good thing is...after 13 miles, I know what music motivates me most. I'm a heavy metal/hard rock girl at heart.

Another important lesson I learned this weekend is that I shouldn't dismiss the importance of building up to my longer runs. There's a reason people -- even seasoned runners -- take months to train for marathons. And I owe it to my body to build up slowly and get used to the longer mileage.