A marathon

I have been planning to run a marathon since January. I was told in January that I wouldn't enter Basic Training until September, so I decided to set lots of goals to help pass the time. One of them was to run 100 mile before Josie was born, which I accomplished. Another was to max out on the Army's sit-ups and push-ups, which I definitely did not accomplish.
Next Saturday is my chance to run a marathon, which I hope I will accomplish. My route is set up so that if I don't accomplish it, it means I have not made it back home. You should know that this is not an organized event. It will entail me getting up at 4am and running 13.1 miles away from home and then coming back again. I was talking about it to Mom and she said that I should write about it. She said she would sponsor me if I wrote about it. SO i am going to write posts from today to September 13 or 14 (I don't know what time I have to report on the 14th) and in exchange she will make me a t-shirt and buy me some of those energy-electrolyte jelly beans.
She didn't know what they were, but I have always wanted to try them so I made her add them to the deal.
I think this run is going to hurt pretty bad. I was getting pretty good at my half-marathon time in April (while I was finishing up the last of my 100-miles-before-Josie-gets-born goal) but I have done very little long distance running since. Nothing over 6 miles in fact. The good news is that as long as I finish, I will have gotten first place. And because I am leaving at 4am, even if I was to walk the whole thing with my hands in my pockets, I could probably be home before noon. But I am hoping to get below 4 hours, and also to not collapse from dehydration. I only know of one drinking fountain along the way. I suppose I could drop off water bottles the day before on my bike. That is a pretty good idea actually.
Well, wish me luck.