Anyone crazy enough out there to take on a half-marathon?

I just signed up for a 5k today thats as crazy as i get http://www.chefsforkids.org/events.html

Training for my first one right now. March 4th - Rock and Roll New Orleans Half.

I'm terrified and excited at the same time. LOL

I am doing my first, it's the Rock n Roll 1/2 in Nashville on April 28.

My husband and I are doing the Go St. Louis half marathon on April 15th. He has done the Army 10 miler a few years ago but this will be his first half marathon and definitely my first. We've been working out more and trying to stay fit since the beginning of this year. We just printed out our 12 week training schedule so we can be prepared for the race.

Planning for my first 1/2 on June 23 in Seattle. Rock n roll half marathon! Nervous and Anxious..going to switch up from my normal cardio on the ellipticals to the treadmill beginning Jan. 2nd. I have a 5 mile in April that will be a good measuring event in my training.

Here we go!

Bump, I want to ...but furthest have run is 15Km!

I've never done a 5K, 10K, or any other race. Just yesterday I ran (well walk/jog...I never received my running gene) on the treadmill. Friends are trying to convince me to do a half marathon in March...crazy! I say go for it. You've done 5K's and 10K's, so why not another one under your belt!

I ALWAYS do a run/walk (run 3 mins. then walk 1 min) and I'm not ashamed of it. If I get any weird looks from the runners while I'm walking, I usually think about how I'll be leaving them in my dust later in the race when they've tired out and I'm still going strong. :laugh:

gbsngrl
I can do the GO St. Louis half-marathon on April 15th............getting excited.............
Looks like stef_3 and her husband are going to be there too.......................
It's a movement!

About my half marathon in August…

I ran the half at a moderate pace because I did a motorcycle ride right afterward.

One of my hobbies is long distance motorcycle rides - the entry level ride is 1000 miles in 24 hours (it's called a SaddleSore 1000). I've done lots of those, as well as other rides such as border to border to border in 48 hours, coast to coast to coast in 48 hours, and a few rides of 1500 miles in 24 hours (that's a pretty tough one).

I decided to run the half and then do a SaddleSore 1000. The half was in San Diego and the ride was from SDO to Phoenix and back to SoCal.


http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=367c4e4e87ed45c19

The run was good but the ride was tough 'cause it was pretty hot because I was going through the desert in California and Arizona.

By 3 AM the next morning, I was pretty tiredso I checked into a hotel in Barstow, CA and slept for a few hours before heading home.

Would I do it again? Probably not. The physical stress of the race plus sitting on a motorcycle for 20 (+/-) took their toll and I ended up with an IT band injury that cosst me a few weeks of training. Other than that, it was fine.

What so many folks here are finding out as we move along our journey to good health is that the biggest limiting factor is not our body, it's our mind.

With losing weight, it's our mind that tells us to cram food in our face. Some folks are able to change their behavior and we lose weight and get healthy. Some folks cannot change their relationship with food and they remain obese or overweight for life.

Same with something like running. Once I got down to about 200 pounds, I stopped the elliptical and started running. I trained my body to withstand the running but the biggest issue was to noodle through the question - "Can I finish the 12.1 miles?"

One day in July, I told my girlfriend that I knew I could finish the race. It may sound presumptuous of me to do that but I had finished a 9 mile run in the heat, on a hilly course, and I knew that if I could run something like that, I could run 13.1 in San Diego.

And it worked out fine.

Like we learned in jump school in the Army, success is a combination of competence and confidence. If you develop a decent level of fitness, your confidence in yourself will take you a long, long way.

See you at the starting line!

I've done one, and I will honestly never do one again (unless I become a different person).

I just absolutely hated it. I did feel like I accomplished something, but I hated training for it, my knees hurt, I hated running it, and then hated how I felt afterwards. I realized I just really don't enjoy running enough. I don't hate 30 min of running, but beyond that I'd rather not run for 2 hours +. So I will stick with triathlons!

New runner also. My goal is 5k in Feb. That shouldn't be a problem, next one is 8k in April, 10k in August, and yes a half marathon Food and Wine Disney in November. I figure if I don't have these goals I'll lose focus. I need concrete black and white goals and plans to follow thru!

I have been running off and on for the last 30 years (since high school) and have never run competitively. Always been a solo effort. That may change soon, but I am in no hurry.

I went from running maybe a mile or two to running two half marathons in a year. You can do it! There is nothing like running with probably thousands of other people. It's an amazing feeling!

Yes and no. If you love running long distances, by all means go for a half- then full marathon. However, if it bores you to tears, you won't be motivated to keep up the training and may risk injury. If that's the case you may want to look at improving your time for your current distances, or perhaps try an adventure race, trail running or triathlon, for example.

I ran one in 2004 and trained for one in 2007 (broke my ankle though, and couldn't do it) I'm hoping to attempt the KY Derby Mini this year but I have a LOT of weight to lose and exercise to catch up on. Thank Goodness for muscle memory!