The Decision: To Marathon or Half Marathon?

I am taking my talents to Huntington Beach in the form of a Sub 2 half marathoner!  I know I keep putting marathons on my schedule and then inevitably each of  those marathons magically disappear or turn into half marathons.  It's a vicious cycle that I am trying to break.  There are a million excuses for why this keeps happening: injury, moving to a different state, new job, laziness etc... but they are just that excuses.  The truth is I just haven't planned enough ahead of time and really taken the marathon seriously and then I get excited about a race and think that I can jump into a training plan midway through no problem!

Well this time I am doing it right!  I don't want to have a crappy marathon just to do it, I want to PR a marathon and feel trained and prepared, like I did in the good ole'days.  Therefore after my long run this weekend (which was pretty ugly), I officially decided that Surf City will be a  half marathon.  I downloaded a Sub-2 half marathon specific training program which seems like a good fit.

I am still looking at options for my marathon goal.  The four races that come to mind are: Ojai to Ocean (though I just found out they are changing this to May which is only two weeks after Nike DC), San Francisco Marathon, Nike SF and Santa Barbara.  O2O is my first choice but I don't love the timing so I'll probably default to one of the two SF races.  The saddest part of all this is I'll have to take the mini version of this rad medal:

There is always next year!

Anywho, I joined a super fancy new gym right downtown SF which has really kept me on track with this schedule including some morning workouts - that's huge for me!  I've been using the treadmill for my speed workouts and when it's raining (all this week).  So far I feel great - back injury seems better - and my legs are very sore!  All signs that point to actually training.  Sub 2 here we come; actually I should say sub 1:59. 

Final thought is a wore my first pair of Oiselle Roga's last night for my speed workout and they did not disappoint.  I finally broke down and ordered two pairs after reading the non-stop hype from Sarahoul.
I usually wear the standard Nike Capri's or shorts on my lower half since I lived in Niketown Portland and had some great hookups to the employee store (where everything is 50%) off.  But the shorts are always baggy and I am not crazy about the seam placement on the capri's  so after 10+ years of Nike,  I've started looking at other options. The Rogas are so comfortable and so light!  I literally felt like I was running naked and had to look down a few times to make sure that wasn't true.  They are a little shorter then I anticipated but it just makes them cuter on.  They cinch really well without chaffing at all.  I am officially a fan and will be buying more very soon.  I am still on the lookout for a good pair of capri's if anyone has suggestions.