Been keeping a close tab on the weather forecasts lately. Seems the weatherperson is doing yo-yo tricks with those May temperatures. Up, down, round and round, walk the dog and get rained on. Especially on the weekends.

Please, how about a little stability? Just a hint of seasonable would be nice. Because I've got that itch again.

Stick the memory of one brutal marathon in the old mental archives and enough room clears in the frontal lobe to entertain the notion of another. Yeah, I'm convinced there's one good marathon in my fermenting shoes – and I haven't run it yet.

So I'm aiming to make it six big ones and counting – long as the temperatures stay in spring range. Two hot marathons in a row – Athens and Boston – are about as much as I can handle. I'm still rehydrating.

That said, I've set my sights on my next one. Marathon number six. And this one's right in my backyard. The first-ever Mississauga Marathon. May 16.

I'm hoping that having run just about every step of the route at one time or another will be a bit of an advantage. The hill on beautifully-treed Mississauga Road a little south of Dundas Street that carries on around the corner, just a little longer than you expect. The gradual ascent out of Jack Darling Park back onto Lakeshore Boulevard – again harder work than it seems.

It's not quite the trails of the Credit River, where the deer and the coyotes play. But, if it's a sunny day, there is shady relief much of the way.

I caught up with one of the organizers, Brad Melville, a seasoned athlete in his own right. Once this race is over, he can focus his thoughts on the ironman triathlon he'll be doing in Florida later this year.

Even he's surprised by the reaction to this inaugural marathon. As of last week, organizers were expecting a total of 3,200 runners for the marathon, half-marathon, 10 k and 2 k family fun run. With five days to go, more than 3,500 had registered over the internet. That total doesn't include fax or mail-in registrations. Runners from eight provinces, 15 American states and 10 countries have signed up.

More evidence of the latest surge in this version of the running boom.

"This makes us bigger than both Toronto events, London, Ontario and Niagara in our first year," Melville said.

"We're giving people the opportunity to run a personal best on a fast, certified course." The course elevation map bears that out – yes, there are a few hills, but much of the course is slightly downhill. And with the right weather conditions, that could lead to some decent times.

Melville says there have been some inquiries from elite athletes, which should lead to a fairly competitive field.

Including paid staff, volunteers, police and medical staff, 600 people are working on this race. The organizers are trying to capture the flavour of some of the big name marathons like Chicago. They've mailed out 20,000 letters to residents, to keep them in the loop.

No, there won’t be the million-strong crowds they get in New York, Boston or Chicago. But with any luck, there won’t be the angry drivers who try to cut off runners making their way down Toronto's Yonge Street, either.

So with the kinks of Boston now worked out of my system, I'm ready to join 4,000 of my closest friends for a jaunt through my own backyard.