Half Marathon Countdown!

It's that time of year again! Half marathon time. This will be my 4th half marathon. It's also about this time I wonder why I subject myself to this torture every year! :p

This is a repeat for some of you but some of my blogger followers are new so bear with me! My first half marathon was in 2006, before I started weight watchers (for the final time in 2007). The year before, my friend ran the full marathon and I helped her out by running the last half of that full marathon with her (hence a half marathon). This was 2005. Since I was able to do that, I figured I could do a regular half. And I did, in 2006. It took me 2 hours 55 mins.

Of course it was hard. I didn't do any type of training program and I'm not really a long distance runner naturally. And I have bad knees. And I was probably at least about 235 lbs. So yes, it was hard. But knowing I was able to do it gave me such a good feeling!

So that was it. I was hooked on half marathons. Unfortunately, I hurt my knee in early 2007 and didn't do much running that year, no half marathon. But my only goal when doing a half marathon is to first... finish it, and second... beat my previous time.

Here are how my times stack up so far:
2006 2:55
2008 2:39
2009 2:23

Do you see a trend? Each time I beat my previous time by 16 mins! That's huge actually! But this year, it's going to be hard to beat 2:23! My goal is between 2:15-2:20. You've got to have a goal!

I ran last night for the last time before my half marathon on Sunday. I wanted to do 8 miles. I ran 7.8 miles and walked the last .2 miles for a cool down. I was out for about 1 hr 30 mins. And I burned 1,000 calories (exactly!). At one point I looked to see how many calories I burned and it showed 666! I am a little devil sometimes! :)

Sorry for the boring running post. It's what's on my mind right now.

Friday night, I have a pasta dinner with the charity group for the run.
Saturday, I have to venture downtown to pick up my packet.
Sunday, 6:30 am is the run! Yes 6:30! I hate that, I'm soooooo not a morning person! But they want to do it before it gets too hot. Ugh!