1/2 Crazy

I did a couple of 4 mile runs recently, one of them at a 11:24 pace, and suddenly went crazy. So crazy that I committed myself to running a half marathon on January 1.

For those of you who aren't sure, a half marathon is 13.1 miles. Depending on my mood, 13 miles either seems doable or downright scary. At the time I was signing up for the race I was obviously in a doable mood. Two minutes later I was back to frightened and have remained there.

I have exactly 12 weeks to prepare for this event, which is convenient since I printed out a 12 week training schedule that will supposedly get me in shape for it. The schedule has me doing about 4 runs a week, none of them getting too terribly long until weeks 7-12 when the weekly "long run" starts to freak me out a little. The good news is, I've enlisted a half marathoning pro who happens to be a friend of mine to coach me through it and even run the race with me. I'm hoping he can help me prevent a mental breakdown.

So on 1/1/11 when millions of people are making a list of New Year's Resolutions, I will be out in the cold fulfilling what began this year as a interesting new experience in my life. I'm not going to have the fastest pace, I might have to walk every now and then, and it's possible I may cry (I am hoping to hold that to a minimum), but when all is said in done I'll hold a medal in my hand that says I completed a half marathon.

I'm so excited to be working toward this goal for the next 12 weeks!