To marathon or not to marathon?

I am officially paid and registered for the 6 tunnel (Hoover Dam) half marathon on March 14th. And I officially have decided to NOT run the full SLC marathon in April that I was previously planning on doing. WHY? I really started researching the effects of marathon running on the body, and there is a lot of negative physiological stress put on the body, particularly on the knees, shins, hips and back by the constant pounding down on the concrete. I think short term I would be just fine, but I'm looking down the road to when I'm 50, 60, 70 and I want my body to be in as good of shape as possible, I plan on still being very physically active then and I don't want that to be infringed upon by having bad knees, hips etc.... from marathon running when I was younger. I figure I only get one body and I don't want to jack it up. Also my parents really don't want me to do it for that reason. So I'm compromising and currently training for the half marathon, which will be much easier on my joints. I have never run a long distance race period so the half will still be plenty of a accomplishment for me :)



Here's a cute picture of my kid to make this post a little more interesting