Hi! It’s been a couple weeks, so let’s catch up. In my last post, I was super eager to sign up for a half marathon through my work even though I have almost no time to prep, and I’m not physically at my best.  I got some great suggestions on how I could make it happen with run/walk and not putting pressure on myself, but in the end I’ve decided not to sign up for the half.

Fortunately, it turns out that this year, for the first time, they are also holding a 5 mile race!  I’m going to do this instead! While I’m still craving long distance; the 5 miler will be exciting for other reasons;  I haven’t run a 5 mile race in a long time, and I think I might have a chance to PR!  Although 8 weeks isn’t enough time for me to train well for a half, it should be plenty of time to train well for 5 miles!

I feel good about this decision.  I’m so glad they added a 5 miler. Prior to getting pregnant and taking a running break, I was itching to run a 5 miler because my current PR was below my fitness level. I was sure I could PR a 5 miler if I could just find one to run. At my current fitness, it’s pretty much the only distance I have any hope of even coming close to my current PR; so it gives me a little challenge that wouldn’t be there for a 5k or even a 10k. And I think a little challenge is part of what I wanted to get out of the half marathon.

Current PR: The Run to Remember ::: Boston, MA ::: May 25th, 2008 ::: 52:43

Another thing that I realized with my crazy desire to sign up for the half is that I want to do long runs again. When thinking about the half, I really didn’t know how I could fit in runs that might end up taking 2 hours. But I’m pretty sure I can find one hour! So, I’m going to take my current 30 min run and lengthen it at least once per week.  That should be a good starting point. With any luck, I’ll be able to get a half marathon on the schedule sometime in 2017.

Note: My hometown turkey trot is 8k (4.97 miles) and I have run that numerous times, but I haven’t run an official 5 mile race since 2008.