So what's this about a Half-Marathon? Sheesh! Aren't WordSprints enough?

Good question. For some, the answer may be yes, WordSprints are more than enough for me, thank you very much.

But for others, those who want to push the very limits of their endurance, the Endurance Writers' Half-Marathon may be just the ticket.

So... what is a Writers' Half-Marathon?

Until just a few months ago, it was only a concept. A concept that several brave souls embarked upon on the quiet morning of September 11th, 2007--the date of the inaugural voyage of the Endurance Writers' Half-Marathon. It was a practice run. A test drive, if you will. Something that was envisioned to one day expand into <<gasp>> a Full Marathon! Even, perhaps, an Ultra-Marathon!

The Half-Marathon was a blazing success. What was it all about? Think WordSprints... combined with something that was a bit like a college all-nighter. Except during the day, instead of at night. Basically, it was 13.1 hours of intensive, online, group writing madness. Yes, 13.1 hours. The actual length, in mileage, of a runners' Half-Marathon.

I can hear your groaning. Thirteen hours! But methinks, perhaps thou doth protest too much? Are you secretly interested in such an endeavor? Does it pique your interest?

Well, it certainly piqued ours, and not just the side of us that wanted to see how long it was humanly possible for one person to keep typing! We marveled as we imagined the possibilities, the potential benefits, the knocking-out of enormous chunks of those dusty, too-long-ignored BIG writing projects.

And we did it. We did it in a BIG way. In fact, as some of us soon learned, a single writer banging out 12,000 words in one day was NOT beyond the realm of possibility!!

So now what? Now, we want to do more! In fact, we are doing more. As the dust kicked up by the whirlwind storm of NaNoWriMo 2007 settles, we are stretching our tired, overworked fingers and working out the kinks from the multiple Half-Marathons we recently completed. Yes, we spent most of November WordSprinting and Half-Marathoning like mad little NaNo freaks, pulling up our word counts by the bootstraps. And yet even then, in the dead of night, as we dreamed about our novels and the characters danced in front of our eyes, we still couldn't help wondering... what would a full marathon be like? Hmm, 26.2 hours of mad-capped, frantic, at-times-even-dazed writing. Is it even possible? IS IT??!

The truth is, we just don't know what's possible. So, like true pioneers, we're going to forge ahead, pretending as though we know exactly what we're doing. Right.

In case you aren't yet "in the know," rest assured that future Half-Marathons and other events (including the elusive possibility of a Full Marathon) will be posted on the Yahoo Group Calendar. So if you're not an Endurance Writer yet, what are you waiting for? Join the group, and keep a lookout for the upcoming fun and madness, coming to a computer near you!