From the Mind of Meegs

As step number something in my journey from fat ass to svelte, I will be running a half marathon this summer. I've been what I would consider a "runner" for over a year and a half now, but I haven't raced anything of this distance yet. It's a little scary. Hold me.

At one point, half-joking half-serious (and really before I totally fell in love with running), I said I wanted to run a marathon before I turn 30. I don't actually want to become a marathoner. I'm not that crazy. But I want to do it just once, to say that I've done it. The 2009 Chicago Marathon is about 3 weeks before I turn 30, and at present that is my target. But we'll see. Depending on how this race goes, I may aim for a spring marathon.

I've been unofficially-officially training for this half for about two months now, and I've already worked up to about 10 miles on my long runs. Some half marathon plans only take you that far, promising that race day adrenaline will carry you through that last 5K. I do not share their confidence.

So, in actuality, I guess I'm doing OK. I've got plenty of time to log some more miles and work up to a max long run of about 12 miles between now and the August race date. Such is my goal. But even though I've been actively planning and training for this for a while, I just got up the courage earlier this week to put my money where my mouth is (or is that my money where my running shoes are? or my running shoes where my mouth...ewwww) and sign up for this race.

And yeah, I'm freaked. Not because I don't think I can do it. I can. I will lace up my New Balance shoes and pocket my Clif Shot Gels and conquer the pavement. Just because...I don't know. I guess it's like making a to do list. Putting it writing means you lose the ability to be whateverish about the enormity of the task at hand.

Or maybe it's just because it's so damn hot out these days, and that tends to make running difficult, even with my miraculous hydration belt that somehow holds two water bottles without bouncing or leaking. I suppose that's why they race starts at 6:30 AM. But then--being not just up and not even just up and about but up and about and ready to run over 13 miles by 6:30 AM? Even with my 5:45 AM training runs, that kind of scares me too.