For the month of January, I’ve committed to posting every day, having accepted the 30-day challenge.
This is day 26 of 30.
It seems that 2016 is my reintroduction to the racing scene in a big way; this morning I accidentally signed up for a half marathon. I wasn’t planning on doing anything this long until Fall, at the very earliest, but I couldn’t pass this up — I got a $5 entry. At that price, even if don’t race (WHICH I WILL), the shirt is a cheap buy. I really wasn’t going to sign up, figuring I’d never get one of the super special, very-few-available low entry rates but once I saw that it was there, it was like fate had started penciling in stuff on my calendar for me.
It’s the Naperville Women’s Half Marathon and it’s at the end of April. I’ve set up a training plan and without knowing it, I apparently started it two weeks ago. I’ll have about 14 weeks to become reacquainted with the weekend long run. Those haven’t been on my schedule since I was marathon training in 2011 and I can’t say that I remember them all that fondly. Luckily, the half marathon long runs are nothing compared to marathon long running. At least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.
After signing up I started checking out the race details and this should be a nice, gentle slide back into things. Not only is it a women’s race (which are always very “you go, girl!” kind of events), but there’s a 4 hour maximum time limit which eases my mind. Not that I plan on it, but I could walk most of it and finish in 4 hours, so there’s lots of room for not being in as good of shape as I want to be.
That said, I’m going to do everything I can to prepare as well as I can for this. I don’t mind going slow; I do mind going slow because I didn’t do the work before getting to the start line.
Bring it on, Naperville. I can handle it. And really, for just over $0.38 per mile, give me all 13.1 of them. Can’t pass up a deal like that.
