This is Marathon Place, also my happy place — right now. (c) Stacey Cooper

Yay, I start training for my marathon next week! I really am excited about this, which is a first. In 2010 when I ran my first marathon I so concerned about not getting nervous about it that I somehow forgot to get excited at all. Not once during the training or even the night before did I feel anything except for the fact that it was just another race. I finally did get excited that I was running the marathon 3.5 miles in. Well better than waiting until after the darn thing.

Last year, I got excited about it in August when miraculously all of my training runs improved and happiness overcame us all. Well maybe not all of us but certainly me.

And now this year I can’t wait to start training. Maybe it is because I actually took some time off from training right after the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Not having to train for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon has been refreshing. It really has given my body and mind the rest it has needed. See, I’m finally becoming smart about this running stuff. While it would have been nice to run Napa again or even San Francisco a week later it just turned out not to be in the cards this year.

So marathon training starts on July 3 and I’ve stocked up on all of my supplies. I’ve got my new pair of shoes ready to go when my current ones hit their limit. There is the Gu, Body Glide, and Gatorade at the ready (Thank you Stop & Shop for Gatorade 10 for 10 sale).

Most importantly are the small packets of A&D ointment. Why and what are these you ask. Well these are the most perfect little travel size packets for chafing triage on the run. Two years ago while on a long run in Queens there was an awkward stop at a gas station to buy a small bottle of Vaseline for chafing from my sports bra. That bra will never ever be worn on a long run again. Then there was that stop at a NYRR medical tent during the 18 mile Tune-Up when the top of my thigh started to chafe because of my sweat soaked shorts. Now I never go on any long run without the A&D Ointment packs. I had to use them during the Brooklyn Half and they were a lifesaver. Highly recommended by Scoops.

I’m using Hal Higdon’s novice marathon training plan for the third year. I’m pretty comfortable with it and like the distance of the long runs. Last year I downloaded his training app but never actually opened it up because I thought it was just something that listed the workouts. Apparently, it has a lot more cool features besides listing the runs, although that is pretty nice itself. It utilizes the phone’s built in GPS to track your runs, you can play your music through it, it logs your runs, offers tips and has social networking features.

Normally, I just use my Garmin because I have found with other running apps on the phone that the GPS feature has been off, often saying I have run farther than I really have. That can be dangerous in marathon training. Instead I think I’ll use it simultaneously with my Garmin and give periodic reviews as I go along. I have a feeling that it will be better than the Map My Run and Nike+ apps but I want to give you some solid info on this app since it does cost about 10 bucks.

So I’m still just cruising along with some easy runs this week with the Queens 10k on Sunday. It will be nice and hot again for that but no plans or goals for that other than to finish and to get my NYC Half Guaranteed entry credit.

Then I will bore you with every detail of my marathon training! You are so excited.