The seed of the idea has been planted so I’m just going to go ahead and say yes to it. I’m going to run the New York City Marathon in 2019.

I’m telling you so I can’t back down. I’ve actually had “run a marathon” on my bucket list for a long time. I’ve always wanted to do it but I’ve never committed to doing it or I found reasons not to do it. That’s how a lot of things in life go.

I just ran a half marathon. That’s a pretty good indicator that I could do a full one, right?

I mean, sure, the last three miles of the half were rough. I had to grind those out. I just got some candid pictures back from the half. There’s one of me running through Grand Army Plaza and I’m giving rock on slash devil horns sign with both hands. That was mile three or four when I was feeling great. But that picture is one of six. The other five are of me on the boardwalk at mile thirteen, running with everything I have left. In one picture, I look like I’m crying. In all the others, I’m making a face like I’m running barefoot on a sea of thumbtacks and Legos.

That would be the halfway point of the race I am telling you that I am going to run next year.

So, why do this? Well, for starters, I need a blog post for today and this seemed like a decent one.

Second, as I said above, I’ve always wanted to run a marathon.

Third, I’m in a good place with running where I’m making it a habit. These days I enjoy getting up in the morning to run. That is not nothing. I am not a morning person and yet here I am dragging my ass out of bed an hour early, going outside, and then running. I can’t waste this momentum.

Finally, I have a plan. That’s a big thing with me. In order to do something – anything – I need a plan. To gain entrance to the New York City marathon, you can do something called 9 + 1 where you run nine races and volunteer to help with one. Then you qualify for the following year’s marathon. I have run one race. I have since become a New York Road Runners member and signed up for more races. By the end of August, I will have run six marathon qualifying races, leaving four more months in 2018 to run three races and volunteer for one.

I think that I can do this.

I November of 2019, I will be 42 years old and I will hopefully be running my first marathon. Don’t let me forget that.

(And I want to do it in less than four hours. Don’t let me forget that, either.)