To Goal or not to Goal???

The question is still an easy one. Yes, I am still on my marathon path. In these past couple of weeks, I have found that running a marathon is not going to be as hard as I thought. I finally told my mom my goal to complete a marathon. I think I avoided telling her for so long because I knew she was going to take me running with her. I told myself that if I am serious about this then I do need to tell her...so I did. She was really excited and just as I suspected, asked me last Wednesday if I wanted to run with her. She told me she was "only" going to run 3 or 4 hours. I laughed to myself and told her I would love to and asked that she be gentle! We went to Cameron Park and ran almost 4 miles. The cool thing is that we did 1:1. See, my mom hurt herself pretty badly this year and is slowly working her way back to where she was before. This worked out in my favor as well. I had never heard of 1:1 or 2:1 or whatever you feel like doing. Basically what it means is that you run 1 minute and walk 1 minute or you run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute. This can always be modified to each individual person and how they are feeling at the time. I was really excited about that. We completed the run and made plans to return the next day. We took it easy that day because her leg was bothering her and she wanted to be sure she was able to do the 11 miles on Saturday without any problems. I heard "11 miles on Saturday" come out of her mouth and KNEW she was going to invite me. My good ol' mother didn't let me down...she asked me. I quickly tried to see if I had a legitimate excuse to not attend and could not find one. I reluctantly agreed but I knew that I would have to start somewhere if I was serious. I was nervous because I didn't want to let my mom down nor did I want to let myself down. I showed up and we started. We started at Redwood Shelter in Cameron Park. When we started, we did the 1:1. We continued this the whole 11 miles. I tell you this was awesome! I did not feel as exhausted as I thought I would. I actually felt like I had more energy. As we ran, this gave us time to  bond and I was able to ask so many questions I had regarding marathons. She told me that the majority of people do a 1:1, 2:1, 5:1; whatever works for them. This made me realize that my goal is not going to be as hard as I thought it would be. We completed the 11 mile run. It was great! I felt alive and enjoyed being in the fresh air! It really beats running in the gym. I am hurting today (the run was yesterday morning) and I have this feeling that I am going to be hurting more tomorrow. I am still super excited about this run. I have more faith in myself now. I know I can do it!!! I also have a feeling that once I complete my first marathon, it won't be my last. At the end of the 11 mile run, I felt like I could do anything. I felt like I accomplished something...I gave myself a pat on the back!