My 8th Marathon will be in Austin.

Well, I've decided to get back on the marathon horse again. It kicked me off in Chicago and a year ago in Portland. But I'm back in the saddle, hoping to ride my way to Boston through the Austin Marathon on February 20, 2011.

I still haven't figured out why I cramp so bad, especially in races, but I've got a few clues. Some are small, some are big and I'll share them in a later space.

On Friday, I'm going to do my first 20-mile run since Chicago and I'm pretty confident. I hope to run the first 15 at an easy pace then run the last five at marathon goal pace. And just what is my marathon goal pace? Well, two weekends ago, I ran 17.5 miles with the last nine at a clip of about 7:25 min/mile. So there. 7:20 to 7:30 is my hoped-for-pace.

So, here I go again. I'm all in, cramps be damned.