I did it! 13 miles without stopping. I did walk in the middle so that I could eat my "goo". If I didn't I couldn't have eaten it and without a little energy along the way I'd collapse.

I don't like to run out half my distance and then turn around and run back. So, I try to do loops or run out and then get picked up. Today I ran from my house to the beach and then south past buccaneer beach. I thought I was going to stop at any moment from about 8 miles on but I just kept pushing through it. Once I did stop I turned around, looked back the way I just came and asked myself, "could I just run back home?" Today that answer would have to be NO! Hopefully, by the time December gets here I'll be able to say YES!

I heard that if you can run 13 you can finish 26.2. I'm counting on it, since I'm officially signed up and have paid the entry fee. Now I'm going to have to do it for sure.

1/2 Marathon

Yesterday was my 47th birthday. Thank you to all those that took time out of their day to send me birthday wishes. But it got me thinking that I haven't updated my blog for awhile. I'm finding that I'm not a very good blogger. While running I can always think of interesting or funny things to post about but by the time I do, I can never remember what it was I thought of. For example, last Saturday I was brilliant, but now, for the life of me, I can't remember what I was going to say. So here's the status on my progress.

Yesterday I started the day with my 3 mile run and then spent the next 16 hours working. Ending up spending my birthday night with my customer at a going away dinner party for my customer's program manager. It was nice but it wasn't where I wanted to spend my birthday. Even worse is, my cell phone battier ran out and I couldn't talk to, or email anyone. Like my son Quinn said, "wow, who lets their phone die on their birthday?"

By the way, all of those who say they love running, your sick. I still find the only think good about it is not doing it. For better or for worse, my personality is to keep 100% to what I've decided to do or 0%. That means if I were to miss even one day on my schedule I might just throw it all in and stop. Fortunately, I'm on track for my training. I did have to do my 6 mile run late Wednesday night and yesterday's 3 miler early in the morning. With only a 6 hour sleep in between, it made if very hard to get through the 3 miles, but I knew I had to do it. I pretty much hated every minute of it.

Last Saturday was my longest run yet, 12 miles. I finished, but ended up walking the last 1/2 mile due to a miscalculation on my part. I could have gone farther, and will have to this Saturday as it will be my official 1/2 Marathon. The amazing thing was, I actually passed other runners on my path, that never happens. Even better, I wasn't passed, which tends to happen from time to time. It was the worst when 2, fairly lengthy ladies blew by me. They were obviously runners, a lot younger, I pretty much think that neither of them were hit by a boat in the last 2 years or so. But, my competitive nature still took it hard. I pass plenty of walkers but last Saturday was the first time I passes a few runners.

Well, got to run, not litteraly, but I do need to get going. I'll try to write less, more often; and proof read...

10 Miles!

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write, "Just finished my 10 mile run". After working up in miles and doing 9 miles last Saturday, I just did 10 this Saturday. I ran down to the beach from my house. I felt like I could have done more, maybe even finished a half Marathon, but in order to not push myself too hard too soon, I stopped at 10. In the coming weeks I'll increase the mileage. My weekly Saturday schedule we be:

9/11 - 7 miles
9/18 - 12 miles
9/25 - 13 miles
10/2 - 10 miles
10/9 - 15 miles
10/16 - 16 miles
10/23 - 23 miles
10/30 - 18 miles
11/6 - 14 miles
11/13 - 20 miles (what?)
11/20 - 12 miles
11/27 - 8 miles
***12/5 - 26.2 miles***

I feel like I will actually do it. So much so that I've registered for the event and paid the entry fee. Now I'm committed and will have to finish.