Sunday morning long run...

In the five months between blog posts, a lot of things have changed, and one of them is that I picked up running again. Ok, running might not be the right word for it, walking/jogging is a better term, but I feel better saying running, so I'm going to stick with it!

I've actually committed to running a half marathon in October, which is extremely scary for me, but also gives me something to shoot for, so hopefully it'll help keep me committed. This isn't actually the first time I've tried to train for a half marathon, but I've always gotten hurt in the very early stages before, so I'm hoping this time is different.

To that end - today was my longest ever run! I've officially made it farther in my half marathon training than I ever have before. SIX MILES! Now while that probably doesn't sound like a lot to most, to me it was huge. I never made it farther than 5 miles in the past so today was a big day for me. Now granted, mile six was brutal and I barely ran any of it, but it still counts because I didn't stop and I didn't give up. I'll probably end up repeating a six miler again next weekend, just because today was so tough, but I'm ok with that and have plenty of time in my training schedule for some duplicate weeks.

It's been insanely hot here, and every time I go outside to run I think to myself, man maybe I should have waited until fall to start training. Getting up super early to get in a run before it's in the mid/high 90s and with humidity so high you can practically see it, well, that's my life these days. But I figure it's just good practice, and it'll make me appreciate the better weather, whenever it is that we get to see better weather anyway.

I'm contemplating signing up for some smaller races before the October half just to give me some confidence that I can actually run in races and not just by myself! Yeah, maybe that's a good idea.

Also, and I can't believe I'm writing this, but all of this running has me wondering about doing a full marathon. Granted, I'm going to see how training goes and how my first half marathon goes, but the idea just won't leave me alone. I've been on this kick of coming up with a thirty things to do before I turn thirty list, and running a marathon just might make the list. We'll see...