Jitterbug

Tomorrow is the 12th & final half marathon of my Twelve Half Marathons in 2012 goal, or 12 1/2 in '12 as I like to type it. The overwhelming emotion I'm feeling right now is self doubt. Even though intellectually I know I can probably run a half marathon tomorrow, the rest of my brain and my body are unsure of that statement. Mind you, my last half marathon was 2 weeks ago, and it was my second fastest half marathon time ever. In fact, in the past 2 months, I've run 4 of my 12 half marathons. I'm not injured, I'm not burnt out, I'm not physically tired. But for whatever reason, the voice in my head is seriously questioning whether or not I can do this. Hello, I'm crazy. Have we met?

Speaking of crazy, I signed up for a half ironman which will take place in August of 2013. Because, you know, when you doubt that you can run a half marathon, you should probably sign up for a HALF IRONMAN. For those that don't know, a half ironman is a total distance of 70.3 miles, made up of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and then a 13.1-mile run (a half marathon distance, the same distance I'm worried about running tomorrow, without doing 4 hours of swimming & biking beforehand). I have hired a coach, who I'll start working with in January, so I'll have lots of time to prepare. A lot of my training for the half ironman will also include my training for the Boston Marathon in April, which oddly enough, doesn't scare me at all. Seriously, this makes sense in my head.

So. This is the starting point for my blog. The last time I blogged, it was to document the start of my running journey as I tried to complete the Couch to 5K program. I was 248 pounds and nearly pooped my pants on every 20-minute walk/run for the first 5 weeks of the program. If you don't believe me, you can read all the gory details here. This is still the most epic thing I've ever done. 12 1/2 in '12 was a pretty neat goal, and God willing, I'll have completed it by 10:30am tomorrow morning. Training for my second Boston Marathon with American Liver Foundation's Run for Research Team will be so much fun I can hardly wait to get into the training season. A half ironman will be new & exciting and I'm anticipating LOTS of lessons learned. I guess what I'm saying is that I am going to have a lot to write about, and since blogging helped me to get to my first 5K, maybe it can help me again. And hopefully there will be a lot less pooping in the woods involved this time around.