Half way to a Half!

By the time this posts, I will have completed yet another Saturday morning long run with my half-marathon training group. Each week, I look at the course and the mileage it represents and think 'What have I gotten myself into?!" Then, I cruise back in the parking lot of the Central Branch Y and think "I've never felt better!"

This has been one of those amazing experiences that all started with an invitation from my sister-in-law to run a half-marathon in Oregon with her. Had I not found the group coordinated by Andy, I know that I'd be risking injury, and having a really hard time meeting the timelines and prescribed distances for training runs. That's not even mentioning the fact that I wouldn't be making time for proper cross-training.

I spent so much time in every other road run I've participated in being obsessed with not being in the very back. I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that the person in the back of the pack is still very much a part of it.

I had not forgotten how much I thrive on being part of a team, but I guess I forgot just how insurmountable it would all seem were I to have tried training solo. Thanks to Melody on DailyMile, I found Andy. Thanks to the social networking powers of Facebook, I'm not the only one who did. I'm now part of a training group of almost one hundred people, all surging toward the same finish line every single week, and happy to support each other as we make our way to what I hope will be the first of many on June 13th.

*Post-run update; I ran the whole thing. I have never run 6 solid miles without walking at least part. I finished this morning thinking for the first time not that I'd do the half-marathon and probably walk a good chunk of it, but that I'm gonna run that whole beyotch!