Practicing for a marathon, to me, is a more mental exercise than physical. Ithink physically most of us are capable of completing a marathon but trainingrequires motivation, discipline and perseverance. All of these come are mentalrather than physical aspects of human psychology. And of these motivation is theMOST important since others follow.

I love running and have been self motivated so far. I found a running buddy

few weeks ago but that's only 2-3 days a week. Mostly it's me running alone on

rest of the days and all my long runs, for instance, are alone only. I have

approx 8 more weeks of intense training and then the taper down starts. Having

run slightly over 400 miles in past 11 weeks, I'm hoping to stay motivated all

through out.

This article

(Getting the MOST Out of Training) accurately summarizes the importance of

mental training for a race. Here is a great quote from the article:

"Far too often runners look at mental and physical training separately

and this disconnect is usually most evident during training."

Here are some other articles on staying motivated through the training:

George W Bush is

the only president to have run a marathon. He completed 1993 Houston Marathon in

3:44:52 for a pace of about 8:36/mile. Now that's another source of inspiration

for some :)