Mini Gear

I am definitely not a runner.  I've run a few 5Ks, and I'm definitely getting better at those, but now I'm jumping up to a half marathon.  The longest I've ever run in my life is 11.6 miles and that was this past weekend, and now, in 2 more weeks, I will run my first half marathon ever... the Indy Mini Marathon, which is also the LARGEST in the entire country... something like 45,000 people are registered for the run.

My goal is to finish under the "average pace", which was around 2 hours and 29 minutes.  I ran 11.6 miles in 2 hours and 3 minutes, which means that I would have 26 minutes to complete that last mile and a half, which means I could walk... right now I feel like I should be able to achieve my goal if I have a pretty good day!

SO, after we finished our run on Saturday, my coach a.k.a. my husband, decided it was time for me to get some new clothes.  We walked in to Dick's and there they were... the most amazing running pants ever.  After trying on a whole bunch of stuff, I decided that yes, I can pull off the bright colors, and so here is my race outfit...

I'm going to wear this sometime this week to make sure it's going to be good for the half.  This is the first time I've ever felt like I can actually complete the race and achieve my goals...

1. Finish the race

2. Run the whole time

3. Come in under the average time

I will say that these goals have been progressive... I started out just wanting to finish.  Somewhere along the way, I decided that I didn't want to just finish, but that I was training to RUN the race and that's what I wanted to do the whole time.

After I decided I wanted to run the whole time, and my 5K times started getting better and better, I decided I wanted to set a pace goal for myself.  It started off being 10 minute pace... then I got hurt and my training got interrupted with physical therapy and I'm not sure when I realized that 10 minute pace was not something I wanted to shoot for anymore, but I think that's too ambitious for my first half because 10 minute pace would mean an overall time of 2 hours 11 minutes.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's impossible for me to do, but I don't want to be disappointed at the end of my first race, either.

So, average pace last year was 2:29:25 and my final goal is to be under that time.

It's almost time... more to come!!