The Final Countdown

Sweat Hard

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.  There are five, I repeat, FIVE training runs left on my plan before my big race on the 8th. 

FIVE.

In honor of this auspicious day, I'd like to give one of those weepy acceptance speeches to all the little people who made this possible...but since there is no live video feed, you would miss the full effect of my fancy dress and big hair and Kleenex.

Instead, I will have to settle for a re-cap on my progress/my general thoughts on racing:

First, everyone needs motivation to sign up.  Mine was my hubby.

He did a tri...so I can do a half, right?

Second, everyone needs a strategy to get started.  Mine was the February edition of Fitness magazine.

Third, everyone needs a change of pace to keep things interesting.  Mine included treadmill runs, commuter runs, friend runs, and solo runs.

Running in the rain...awesome!

Fourth, everyone has needs really crappy runs in their training.  Like, really crappy.  Mine taught me loads and helped me better prepare for an early morning race.

Fifth, everyone needs a way to mark their progress.  I checked mine with a 10k race around week 7 of my training!

I finished in 1:00:47, with a pace of 9:48...for me, this is super fast!  I felt great and ran home afterwards (worked the race into part of my 2 hour run for the day).  Very encouraging, since my goal time for the half is 2:15.

Can't wait till next week (esp. my final training run...a grand total of 15 minutes long). 

Woohoo!!!