Run a Half Marathon in Under Two Hours, Five Minutes

At the moment I am pretraining!
Official Training begins mid-february, which is the same time my son has his operation- scheduling and energy-having will be tricky.

Today I ran for thirty minutes-
I will try to run for the next three days but various holiday activities might exhaust me. If I run twice more before Sunday I’ll be happy.

So today I will be looking for my book.

Also I will run for 20-30 minutes in the evening when it is cooler.

1. Last time I ran a half marathon I had a book- Marathon Running for Mortals- it was very helpful. I cannot find this book! If I don’t find it in the next week and a half I think I will order it. This and maybe a few other books on the topic. (I love running and reading, and reading about running and reading about reading. This is not relevant I’m just pointing it out because it’s funny.)

2. The half marathon I am aiming for will probably be around May 17. At the moment I run twice a week for 25 minutes. I really need to amp this up- I think by February 8 I need to be running 30-40 minutes three or four times a week and also I need to be more diligent with my weight training.

3. The tricky thing about this is that I now have a child to look after, so I need to schedule my runs in advance so I know someone can look after my son while I’m out. This won’t be that tricky, though:

a. My boyfriend is home evenings and Thursday mornings.
b. There is a creche at the gym (though it is only open before noon and you need to tell them a few days in advance if you are going to use it- and I don’t know who I’m supposed to tell!).
c. Hero (my son) starts childcare (three days a week) in January. I’m going to need most of the time he’s in childcare for classes and study but maybe I can nip off for a run at some point and go for a run?
d. My sister is available.

I ran my last half marathon in 2007. I don’t remember my time but apparently it was over two hours and five minutes.

Next year I think I will run the Bunbury Half Marathon again. I estimate it will be on May 17th or 24th. Anyway I should be fit enough to start training properly again by February.

The last half marathons in Western Australia this year will be held on on the twenty-first and the twenty-ninth of September (in Fremantle and Esperance, respectively).

This means I’d have to start training on the sixteenth or twenty-third of June, which means I’d have to start going for warm-up walks/runs starting the fifth or twelfth of May.

I am about to have a baby so this is cutting it really close.

I might be okay because I was training for a marathon before I became pregnant and generally I’m pretty fit. But should this prove to much for me this year I can do the Darliington Half Marathon next year, which I think will take place around the tenth of May.

So yes. At the moment my half marathon plans are in the air. I can’t wait to start training again, though. I really miss it.