"But in the end, on the long term: You get it done. Because you decided to do it. So you do."

Love that

Let me second Legallyblonde, you are training too hard (IMO).

Granted, at age 60, I am not a speed demon, but I also have two marathons under my belt since November 2013 and am preparing for No. 3 in April.

How fast can you run the single mile without puking? Take that pace, multiply that by 1.3 and that is your approximate pace for a marathon with all the associated training running towards your maximum limit.

Personally, I follow a plan that has the long, slow endurance runs set at two minutes per mile SLOWER than the theoretical marathon pace (at 60 °F or lower. Add 30 seconds per mile for every 5 degrees above 60 °F). There is some divergent view on how fast you should go but most do not suggest that you run anywhere near what your race pace is going to be unless you are willing to rest one day for every mile that you run those long runs at that pace (that is the generally guideline for marathon recovery if you are putting out your maximum effort for the 26.2 miles). You can do some shorter distance speed work at higher intensity and it is all about pushing your limits. But the real progress comes not from pushing, but from recovering.

Two other things. First, everyone I know that trains for marathons (that aren't keeping some high level of preparedness between marathons spaced a few weeks or months apart) experiences the following: Every time the mileage from the previous long run is exceeded, the feeling of fatigue begins to set in. And when fatigue sets in, so do doubts and you realize that this is really, really hard.

Second, every once in a while you'll have a really bad run. Training for my first marathon, my runs at 6, 8 and 10 miles were good. My run at 12 miles was a breeze even in extremely warm and humid conditions. But the run of 14 miles was a disaster and I kept telling myself I could go faster under the conditions that I should or could. I would have been much better off walking the entire 14 miles and it would have been more effective and accomplished the same endurance benefits. I really doubted I was going to be able to do a marathon and maybe should lower my goal to a half instead.

Fortunately, the runs at 17, 20 (in the rain. it was good practice because most marathons go on rain or shine with the exception of severe weather) and 23 were great.

But the 26 miler four weeks before the race, not so good. Oh, it was good up through 24 miles and it quickly went downhill from there. Lesson learned was be careful with water that is too cold to really take into your stomach. Swirl it around in your mouth, let it cool the blood around your mouth and tongue. A shock to your stomach and intestines can be pretty painful. I made it through ,but I wasn't as satisfied as I had been with the previous long runs.

Oh, one other thing...don't make up for something you "missed" or didn't feel like you didn't do enough of in the last 3-4 weeks of your race. It can really drag you down. Three weeks before my first marathon, I was to do a 10-mile run. It's hard for me to run in an exclusively flat area here, but I chose an extra hilly area and did 1600 vertical feet in 10 miles. Trust me, that was not smart. It took all three weeks to have my legs feel like I had recovered while doing my weekday and other weekend runs...and I had to slow way down.

My second marathon on February 6th, I felt seriously undertrained because of so many issues associated with taking care of my wife after her knee replacement surgery. I missed a lot of short and long training runs and my longest training run was 18 miles (scheduled for 20 but I couldn't stay warm enough so I bagged it at 18). But the runs I did were quality runs and on the shorter runs, I was actually faster than I had been prior to my first marathon. I had the advantage of having run a marathon, knew how my body held up (or didn't) and was running a fairly flat course at Hilton Head. It was cold and wet. The week before they had ice everywhere. On marathon day, it started raining at mile 3 and it basically rained until mile 22 with a couple of very short breaks at mile 17. I couldn't control that but I could choose how hard to run and how good I could feel at the end.

As a small marathon, I had less opportunity to challenge myself by "winding people in" but I made a game of it when I could. And I enjoyed the moment of nothing feeling seriously hurt (tired, yes) at the end of the race.

Here's the deal. Run the marathon not to exhaustion, but to completion. Know at the end, that you had something left when you came across the line and that you can complete it and feel strong. Then give yourself at least a week, maybe two, before you swear it off for whatever reason or say you are ready to go for the next one.

But when you show up at the start, you'll have to make an assessment of how you are doing that day. Know that you are in an elite group. Resist the temptation to go out too fast just because you get caught up with the crowd or you feel really great. And don't sweat the occasional down day. If you've done the training (and the marathon distance is so honest that you have to do the training), then you should do fine.

Enjoy the moment. It occurs only once on the completion of your first marathon. Non-marathoners or people who imagine what it might be like will be in awe of you.