New Marathon Plan

Grandma's is too far away and will cost too much to run. More specifically, it will cost too much to travel and stay for the weekend in Duluth. So, I have decided to run the local marathon in May instead. The River Towns Marathon will be on Saturday, May 8, 2010. I'm putting my goal out there right now. I want to run it in under 4 hours. I think that's a realistic goal. I would love to do it in 3 or even under 3.5, but I'm just not sure I can do that at this point. Closer to the actual date, I'll reevaluate this goal and see where my training is. 9 minute miles would put me at right around 4 hours. 8 minute miles would put me right around 3.5 hours. I have not raced any 5k's lately (I plan on doing one in September), but I can't seem to get a training run of 5k in 8 minute miles, so I'm not sure that I can get that pace for 26.2 miles in May. We'll see.