Marathon Ready in 10 weeks?

My summers are always hectic. With so many weekend camping trips, family reunions and vacations, my running schedule is sporadic, to put it kindly. The kids are home full time, and they give me such grief for dropping them at the child watch at the Y. You'd think that asking them to play with a few other kids in an indoor playground was like asking them to scrub their hardened pee that missed the bowl from the bathroom floor. The things I do for them without complaining deserves a few hours a week to run. I am mute to their whines, but do limit the child watch time to two or three days a week because summer is summer and we should spend the time doing summer things like play in the sprinkler and make homemade lemon aid. Okay, they just beg to watch a lot of TV and play the wii. I can only ignore their whining for so long before I give in. I never said I was super mom.

I had embraced not training for a race and instead enjoyed running for the love of running. However, now that my last out of town trip is over and our routine is taking more regular, I have the itch to train. The weather is starting to cool a bit and running feels great. Truthfully, besides the marathon I run everyday raising my kids, I have only ran one marathon and that was over four years ago. I call myself a runner, but I want to call myself a marathoner. I spent the day doing a little research and think I can be marathon ready in 10 weeks, in time for the Indianapolis Marathon in Lawrence. It's as hilly as Indianapolis gets, but familiar turf. I run parts of the course weekly because it's near my house. I plan to follow the Novice 1 training plan starting at week 8. I was so excited when I saw that today (Monday) is REST!! I am also going to add a strength day on Thursday because that's my routine now. I run three miles on a treadmill and then do an all strength class at the Y. Now I need to pressure my best friend and running partner to run the marathon too. She has said many times she is happy not training this summer, so I am not expecting her to jump aboard, but I am hoping she do many of the training runs with me.