It’s cold and dark outside. 6:51 AM. You cannot feel your toes as you stand shivering at the starting line of the marathon, mere minutes away from beginning a life-changing journey of 26.2 miles. You start having second thoughts as the elite runners warm up. Nervous new marathoners chatter about chafing and the importance of Body Glide, and songs like Eye of The Tiger play loudly over the stereo system. You ask yourself, “Am I really capable of doing this?” I am here to tell you, YES, you definitely can. Months and months of arduous training, the 18 mile long runs you gutted through, the blisters that healed to only become blisters again, the mornings that always came way too early…they all had a purpose. You did not get this far to give it all up. My name is Cheryl Lowe and I will be writing a column on marathon running—anything and everything about training and racing the epic 26.2-mile distance. I will be providing you with race event recaps, interviews with marathoners from all levels, and an additional resource for training advice. I hope to inspire and encourage you to finish a marathon, whether it is your first or your 50th. This has been a particularly exciting year for the sport. Just last month, we saw three Americans—Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell—all qualify for the 2008 Olympics in the men’s marathon. The women’s marathon Olympic Trials in Boston is just around the corner in April 2008. Interest in marathons is increasing at an exponential rate nationwide. This marathon fever is very contagious. Who does not want to accomplish something they never believed possible before? I caught the marathon running bug about two years ago; when my good friend and fellow marathoner Craig Ottman asked me to help him coach a collegiate marathon-training program at Texas A&M University. I had run many races beforehand, up to the half marathon distance. Was I up for the challenge? I had no idea at the time what I was getting myself into, but I can tell you that today I do not regret the decision I made that day to train for my first marathon. I ended up running the Houston Marathon in 2006 in a little under four hours. After two marathons now completed, my next personal goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Then, maybe one day in the future, I would like to attempt to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon. My hope is that, with the recent surge in American distance running, the interest in marathons will continue to grow. Running a marathon is a huge undertaking and requires a lot of focused and dedicated training to get there, but it is very possible, and so worth it.