run 500 miles this year

I just finished running 500 miles, and boy are my legs tired!

Oh, okay, so today’s run was just 3 miles. But it put me over my goal of 500 miles for the year. At an average pace of 11:11 minutes per mile, that means I’ve spent 3 days, 21 hours, 28 minutes, 35 seconds running this year.

As soon as I got back from my run, I registered for the OKC Marathon, which I’ll be running in a little over 4 months. I’m sure I’ll rack up quite a few training miles between now and then. Once I sit down and really look at the training schedule, I’ll set a mileage goal for next year. 500 may not be an ambitious enough goal for a year when I’m training for a marathon—by the time I ran the half-marathon on April 24th of this year, I had already logged about 250 miles. In fact, I would have easily finished 500 by October if I hadn’t had knee problems for a couple of months.

Overall, I think a long-term goal like this works well for me. If I hadn’t had something big like this I was working towards, I might have just slacked off after the half-marathon. Having a goal also encouraged me to go ahead and see the doctor about my knees and get back to running. For a while there, I wasn’t sure it would be possible. But I think that just makes it more exciting that I’ve done it!

I’ve now logged 209.3 miles for the year. I passed the 200-mile mark on my long run (11 miles) last Sunday. For my reward, I ordered a training shirt from the upcoming OKC Memorial Marathon (where I’ll be competing in the half-marathon) and a collapsible water bowl for my good running dog.

So far this year, I’ve run 111.3 miles. I passed the 100 mark on March 1st. I’ve decided I’ll give myself some sort of running-related reward for each 100-mile “milestone”—for this first one, I’m going to order a Shoe ID. I’ve been wanting one for a while, and the Creek Classic race packet included a coupon for a couple of dollars off one.

And once I reach the 500 mile mark…? Then I get one of these!

I’ve gone 68.1 miles so far this year. I should log quite a few training for the half-marathon.