A Crazy Idea

I'm going to run a half-marathon.

There. I said it. Out loud. In print. I chiseled it into a piece of virtual stone.

I decided to do it last week, on a whim. Unrealistic, right? But all my best ideas came from acting on a whim. Seriously, all of them. For example: Join the cheerleading team. Join the rowing team. Apply to Vassar. Apply to Wash U. Go to law school. Be a Yankees fan. See?

I talked to a few friends about it last week - a childhood friend who coerced me into running track in high school (and by running track i mean doing shot put and discus and struggling through the 2 lap warm up/cool downs). a college friend who was the captain of the cross-country team and recently came in 3rd out of 500 women in a 5k race. and a (new!) law school friend who was recently sidelined from her marathon training by an achilles tendon with an attitude problem. Of course all three of them were super supportive. Then again, all of them can also run a mile. Not me.

I'm pretty much the anti-runner. But that's part of the reason I want to actually accomplish this. I don't like the idea that there is something out there that I cant do. I'm not saying my next step is going to be the NBA or that I'm going to quit law school and sign up to be an astronaut. I just think that 13.1 miles sounds just out-of-reach enough to make me want to do it.

Also...law school is hard. It's stressful. It takes up a lot of time, and a LOT of thought. I need a hobby, something to take my mind off school. And while I love my yoga class, its more of a relaxing stress reliever. I need something that's going to kick my ass.

I've made a few forays into running before, most recently this summer. I invested in a sweet pair of Brooks running shoes and some hawt running socks. My plans went well for a month or so, then it was time to move to St. Louis and in all the excitement, running fell by the wayside.Before this summer, I did a 10-week running plan in college. I made it 9 weeks...and then went home for winter break and running fell by the wayside.

This time I'm doing a few things differently. First of all, I have a goal that's not just "be a runner"...its "run 13.1 miles without dying". Second, I've told people about it. Not everyone, but enough people that I am always just a phone call away from encouragement. Or a stern talking-to. Whatever. As I progress and get more comfortable I'll tell more people. It will come up in conversation. Whatevz. I have a weird paranoia that if I talk about things I want too much, they wont happen. So. We'll see.

The half-marathon I want to run is in April, so I have six months to train. Six months to go from zero to 13.1. I scoured the Runnersworld website and found a 10-week program to get me from 0 to 30 minutes of running. Then, there's a 14 week program to go from there to a half marathon. I've got about a week of cushion time built in there. I showed it to my three runnerfriends and they all approved, so that's good.

I started officially on Thursday, and I ran again today (Saturday). Two runs down, 108 to go! I'm going to use the blog to keep track of myself from now on, partly for anyone who reads it (if anyone reads it) but mostly for myself. Whew. More later!