A Marathon

Okay, just kidding. I have this link up right now, so I figure I should write about this particular aspect of a marathon now, while I have the link and it's on my mind. I reeeeeeeeeeaally want to run a marathon someday. And it just so happens that I have great running buddies right now, all of whom will be moving away from me by the end of the year leaving me buddyless! It also happens that we are all training for a half marathon right now and will be running that in April. When you add it all up, plus the fact that I'm a VERY social exerciser, it kinda seems like this would be the best time to do a marathon, right? Weeeeelllll, yes. BUT, you have to convince my buddies, because they're not all sure they're up for a WHOLE MARATHON. They kind of agreed to do one this summer, but then one is so busy and the other is not so sure anymore and I got to thinking (for the billionth time), what if I train for a marathon by myself? I would MUCH rather do it with someone else, but is it important enough to me right now to run several loooooooooooooooooooooooooong runs all by myself to train for it? Won't I be bored and lonely? Probably. Especially since I left my cool little Ipod Shuffle at the gym and it got stolen, so I wouldn't even have tunes to run to. But I came across this page and it got me a little pumped to do it by myself, even if it doesn't work out for my buddies. (Buddies, if you read this pretend I didn't say that. You KNOW you want to run it with me!) Got any words of encouragement? The kind that get you through 15, 16, 17, 18, or 20 mile runs?