To Run or Not to Run... That is the Question

I must begin this post with a few quick stories about my brothers: Several years ago when Mike and John were in high school and naturally still living at home with the parents they were spending a particularly lovely day inside playing video games. On her way out the door my mom sees them and tells them about said lovely day and mentions they should go outside and enjoy it. After running her errands she comes home to find that Mike and John had taken her advice and were indeed playing outside- they had set up the TV on the back deck and were playing their video games there.

Then one summer day about 3 years ago while Mark and I are driving home from church my brother John calls me up. He's telling me a story (that I now don't remember) and at some point says, "yesterday me and Mike were playing tennis..." Now even if you don't know my brothers but have read the story above I'm sure you will find this comment quite as shocking as I did. I was struck dumb and after a few moments of him talking without me hearing a word, I interrupted by saying, "What? I thought you just said that you and Mike were playing tennis?!" To which he laughs and says, "Oh yeah, I should have specified that were were playing tennis on the PlayStation."

Now fast forward to about 2 weeks ago to a conversation between my sister-in-law Maria and my brother Bob.
Maria: The Crenshaws are planning on running a marathon.
Bob: What Crenshaws?

And I have to admit that that's exactly what I've been thinking ever since Susy and Laura told us that they want the Crenshaw family to run a marathon together in 2011. What Crenshaws?

But here I am just a few weeks later with a book The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On with Your Training (because you know I'm a nerd like that and so naturally my first thought when considering running a marathon is "I better get a book about that.") which is so hilarious that I might end up running this marathon after all:

Marathon training isn't something to jump into on a whim. If you do, you're likely to crawl out of it on your hands and knees. Before you begin, be sure to get as much information as you can about what it entails. Well, actually, let me save you some time and give you my Cliff's Notes guide to marathon training: "Ouch," run ten miles; "I can't breath," run fifteen miles; "My sports bra is slicing my body in half," collapse on a bag of ice at a race-day water station. The end. Don't say I didn't warn you.