So, after that little niggle, I’ve only got back running in the past few week. The physio (sensibly) has me working my training up slowly, so I’m currently running 2 mile short runs and 3.5 mile long runs. It feels like a long way to go before a half-marathon, but unlike a month or so ago, at least I believe it might actually happen now! Things are on the up! 3 months ago

Got my official results. I placed 521st out of 552 (700 people registered… that’s a lot who didn’t show up!). My official time was, unfortunately, 2:45:52, putting me at a 12:40 pace.
My unofficial time at the halfway point was 1:21, meaning my split was 12:28/12:55. Blargh. That’s like, way way way slower than I ever run. Goal was to finish in 2:30 (11:27 miles, roughly my standard pace). I thought “the race effect” was supposed to make you run faster?

Oh well. I wasn’t even in the bottom 5%! And if you count the nearly 150 people who never showed up, I actually wasn’t even in the bottom quarter!
Now to find another one ;) I think I like this distance. 3 months ago

So I finished!
I was well above my goal time, but I still hit my main goal of running the whole thing (except for walking through aid stations).

My hip started nagging me during my long run last week. It felt better throughout the week, and I’d hoped it wouldn’t be too much of an issue today. Around mile 6, it was like “hey I see we’ve been running for over an hour, what’s up with that? Why are we still doing this?” and I was like “shut up hip” and stretched. But around mile 9 it really started to hurt, which I think slowed me down a fair bit.

But, I finished! The weather was good, people were nice, my friends came and picked me up and brought me french fries. All in all a success! 3 months ago

The forecast for next weekend is 50° and no rain. Let’s hope it sticks! Today & the next few days are horribly slushy rain, which is not weather I want to run 13.1 miles in (not to mention it’s slippery as hell right now). 3 months ago

I have my first blister of training =/ Poor little foot! 4 months ago

4 weeks to go! Ran 8 miles today, and it felt pretty good. 4 months ago

6 miles down, 7 more to go!
I have somehow managed to cut my time way down at the same time as increasing mileage. How did that happen? Don’t know, but I’m not complaining.

Am considering continuing on to train for a full marathon immediately after finishing the half, running one right around the end of spring/beginning of summer. I have to see if there are any (relatively) nearby at the right time, and also see how my classes are going at that point. 5 months ago

So, a bit of a problem here. I was meant to be doing a ten mile race at the end of October, but a niggling knee injury meant that I had to pull out of it. Unfortunately, that niggling injury is still with me. I ran a 10k today, taking it easy, but I’m now in agony and limping around. Suffice to say that I’m not really sure when I’m going to be able to get training again, let alone be confident enough to book another race. There is one I would like to run at the start of March, but that is starting to look unlikely. Physio booked for Wednesday though, so we’ll see what he says! 6 months ago