Run a Half Marathon...that'll be fun!

Last year my BFF, Jess, decided to run her very first half marathon. Up until that point, Jess and I were what you might call, "Wannabe Runners." We both worked out at the gym and would participate in the occasionall 5K but I don't think either of us considered ourselves "Runners." Even after my declaration 2 years ago that I was going to become a "runner", it never really manifested into anything more than putting in 10-15 miles a week. However, when Jess signed up for her half marathon, she catapulted into a whole new category. She asked me if I wanted to train with her but I just couldn't see being able to fit in the training at that time. Thus, I found myself cheering her on along the sidelines in her first half marathon in Connecticut. As she finished, it was final, she was a runner and I was a wannabe.

Shortly after, I decided that before I turned 30, one of my goals was to run a half marathon. I wasn't doing it because I needed to match Jess' triumph (as a good BFF, I was nothing but pround and a wee bit envious of her), I wanted to do it because it was a challenge. The goal has been on the back burner for several months until last week. I was on the treadmill at the gym and rather than getting off after 3 miles, I kept going. When I finally called it quits, I had logged in 5 1/2 miles. I felt tired but good and thought, I can do this half marathon thing. Yes, that's right. After one decent jog on the treadmill, I was convinced of my ability to complete a 13 mile race. I went to runnersworld.com to get tips and a training schedule and started my official training this past Monday. The first run was an "easy run" and it really was easy. I just had to go 2 miles averaging 11 minutes/mile. Not bad. Tuesday was cross training so I did about 30 minutes on the eliptical and lifting. Wednesday was my tempo run in which I had to do a 1 mile warm-up, then 3 miles at 9.27 and a 1 mile cool down. Since life is sometimes cruel, it was clear within the warmup that I was not going to have a stellar run. By mile 3, I was dying. Defeated, and sweating buckets, I stopped at 4.5 miles and had to go collect myself in the locker room.

I knew that there were going to be days when my body was just not going to cooperate. I'm just hoping that the training will offset some of that. Each day will bring a new lesson. Yesterday brought three.

Lesson #1: Don't wear pants if it's warmer than 40 degrees outside or if running indoors. Just not necessary.
Lesson #2: Don't weight train the day before a challenging run. Your legs will hate you.
Lesson #3: No coffee or dairy within 3 hours of running. Courtesy flushing in the locker room can only go so far.