A new challenge...

All summer I have been debating running a half marathon. Part of me thinks its still to soon to do and another part of me thinks I can do it. The most logical 1/2 for me to run would have been the Maine Marathon and Half Marathon, which took place October 4th (also happens to be my wedding anniversary for those of you who would like to put it in on your calendar). For anyone that knows me, doing things the easy and logical way is just not my style. I kind of like to make things complicated and hard on myself. Awesome, huh? So after much debate and many thoughts such as "there is no way you can run a 1/2" (most of these thoughts came while I was out running and wasn't feeling very good) I decided to not run the local 1/2 just yet.

At the end of August, Sarah came home to visit and we stopped at Cadillac Mountain Sports to get her sister a birthday present. They also happened to have the latest edition of Runner's World, which was all about running half marathons. Of course I bought it. The next day I went to my part time job, where I have a lot of down time.... and read the entire magazine. So many cool races I never knew about, a 12-week training plan that looked manageable. That's it! I'm doing it! However, 12 weeks put me to the middle of November. There was no way I could run the Maine Half Marathon. I searched online for a half in November and found the Chilly Half Marathon in Newton, MA.

I found a race, I had a training schedule, now did I have what it took to train and run the race? I guess it was time to find out. I put in about 4 weeks of training before I finally decided to sign up for the race. I wanted to make sure I was up for it before giving them my money. I signed up. There was no turning back. I sent several friends a text something along the lines of "ok, i'm freaking out now!" right after I signed up.

In 2.5 hours, it will be exactly 4 weeks until the race. I'm excited, scared, nervous, and ready to run.... I think. Today I have an 8-miler. My longest run outside (I've done 9 on the treadmill before). I felt really good at my 7-miler last weekend, so we'll see what today brings. I have learned sooo many things since starting my training...

1. Running is a serious head game. "I can't do this", "yes I can" "no, I want to stop and walk" "you will be so proud of yourself once you are done". Yes, these are the things that run through my head while running. That's why I love my music so much. It gives me something else to focus on.

2. I eat....a lot. I am hungry All. The. Time. My diet has never been great anyway. It usually consists of a light breakfast, lunch, and a little dinner, more often then not, something fried and yummy (I think I am keeping Wendy's and BK in business) I never really "snacked" before. Snacking is now a full time job for me. I get super hungry around 3:30 now, which is new. I could eat a full meal then, and eat dinner at 6:30-7:00 and be just fine.

3. I am super tired. This whole getting up early for work thing....not working so well. I have been going to bed at 9 (seriously? 9:00...I used to stay up until at least 11-11:30). I've been missing all my TV shows, and we all know how much I love my shows. I have a new love for DVR. My life has been Work. Run. Eat. Sleep for the last 2ish weeks... which is when this training thing really started kicking my butt.

4. Running in old clothes is just not as fun as looking good while running. Since I am new to this whole running thing, it means going out and buying running gear. I love it. The bank account does not:-)

5. The colder it gets, the slower I run! Grrr. I was so proud of myself because since the Trails to Ale at the end of September, I have knocked about 30 seconds off my mile pace. Crazy! I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I'll take it. The last week it has gotten so cold and I am back to my turtle like pace. It's only going to get colder... A new challenge I'll have to figure out.

In about 3 hours, I will have been up for 24 hours straight. Like I said, I don't like to do things the easy way...so my brain is not really functioning very well right now:-) However if you have actually read this entire post...I'm impressed. Like I said before, this blog is really for me to track my progress...because I know I will be making a lot of it and I think it will be pretty cool to go back and read about. I enjoy reading other runner's stories and find a lot of inspiration from them so I thought I would share mine with you.

Sorry for the rambling...I'm looking forward to getting to bed soon and a good run later on. Oh! (an off topic side note…) Today also happens to be Pizza Sunday. Every Sunday during football season we don’t make any plans, get the 5-dollar Little Caesars pizza, bud light and watch football all day. If that's not an awesome training diet, I don't know what is.