This is the story about how I agreed to run a half marathon in January. It started about a week ago. As you may recall, I'm running a 5K on Thanksgiving Day, a race appropriately called the Turkey Trot. My friend Sam and I run a couple times a week, and we ran our first 4 miler a week and a half ago. And something magical happened. It actually felt pretty good. I didn't feel like I was going to die, which is something I usually feel at some point during the first mile.
So here's what happens when you run 4 miles and feel exhilarated: you agree to run a half marathon. I knew Sam was planning to run a half in January, but I hadn't given much thought to doing it myself until recently. Here was my line of thought: we're training buddies, so if she's going to train for a half and we continue to run together, well then, shouldn't I also do the half? You might be thinking: If Sam jumps off a cliff, will I blindly follow? The answer is of course not, but I should mention right now that she's already registered for the Big Sur Marathon, which is sometime at the end of April or early May. I'm not even going to think about what this could mean for me.
And so I have verbally committed to running the half marathon in January. I even announced it on facebook. But I haven't ponied up the $50 for the registration fee. Other magical things have happened from running. For starters, seemingly overnight, we shaved a minute off our mile time. Instead of 13 minutes miles, we're now running 12 minute miles. How did that happen? I have no idea, but I'll take it.
So here's what happens when you run 4 miles and feel exhilarated: you agree to run a half marathon. I knew Sam was planning to run a half in January, but I hadn't given much thought to doing it myself until recently. Here was my line of thought: we're training buddies, so if she's going to train for a half and we continue to run together, well then, shouldn't I also do the half? You might be thinking: If Sam jumps off a cliff, will I blindly follow? The answer is of course not, but I should mention right now that she's already registered for the Big Sur Marathon, which is sometime at the end of April or early May. I'm not even going to think about what this could mean for me.
And so I have verbally committed to running the half marathon in January. I even announced it on facebook. But I haven't ponied up the $50 for the registration fee. Other magical things have happened from running. For starters, seemingly overnight, we shaved a minute off our mile time. Instead of 13 minutes miles, we're now running 12 minute miles. How did that happen? I have no idea, but I'll take it.
