A few days ago I decided I was going to run a marathon. I have set several athletic-related goals I’d like to accomplish before I am 25. If I finish the marathon this year, my last goal will be to finish a 1/2 Ironman Triathlon. If I finish the triathlon, it would be a huge feat for me and will certainly cause a crippling injury… but that’s for another year..

I live in Milwaukee so I chose to do the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 4th. I think the only problem is that I HATE running. I am excited to do it in theory, but it’s time for the rubber to meet the road.. literally. I have trouble motivating myself, so I have been searching for tangible ways to keep me going. Now that I have rewarded myself with new shoes and cute running clothes, I need some lasting motivation and I think I found it!

I bought a really cool gadget today. It’s the Nike+iPod device. Essentially, you wear a device in your shoe that syncs with a device attached to your iPod and together they are tracking your run as you go. Through your headphones you hear your own personal coach telling you your pace and distance while your favorite tunes are playing. When you’re done, you get a summary of your run and you can upload that information to your Nike+ profile and keep track of all of your runs. It’s pretty sweet. I didn’t realize you needed the special Nike+ shoes to hold the foot sensor, so I kinda freaked out when I got home to play with it. I decided to stick it to the man by simply sewing the sensor into the tongue of my shoe… and it works great. I’m excited to try it out tomorrow and utilize some of the features on the nike+ website.

I’m still trying to figure out how to implant the below “widget” into the body of my blog, but until then, you can track me by visiting this post or my facebook. Don’t get your hopes up… the race is 24 weeks away, so my runs won’t be grueling for a while. Thank God.