Race Sunday!

Well, I have the Philadelphia half-marathon Sunday. BB and I signed up for it six months ago as insurance against finishing our full marathon and then just falling down and quitting. Marathon training is so exhausting mentally, as well as physically, that we were worried we’d burn out if we didn’t have something else to plan for shortly after the Marine Corps Marathon. So we signed up for the Philly half, which we ran last year as well.

Last year we ran Philly in 2:14 and change. It’s a good race with a few hills, including a big one at mile 9. Really a runner’s race. Not much in the way of silly costumes and large groups of people walking and chatting. It’s a race that seems to be attended mostly by people who are there to put their foot down and run like hell. I like that, though I’m certainly glad there are races for all comers. Last year we ran the Philadelphia Rock and Roll half marathon, and that was much more of a party atmosphere, and it was a lot of fun as well.

We don’t have a time goal for this race. We didn’t have a time goal for our last half marathon either, back in September when we ran the Navy/Air Force half marathon in Washington DC, and set our personal record at 2:03 and change. But I’m really not planning on running this race hard. As usual, I’ll let BB set the pace, because she’s better at it. And lately we’ve found that we tend to run negative splits and push hard at the end. I suspect we’ll end up doing that again.

I haven’t been training for this one much. I’ve only run about 50 miles in November so far, which means that my streak of 100 mile months will come to an end at 8. But we’ve done 10 mile runs each of the last two Sundays, and we did some hill training and some regular weekday runs. In addition, I’ve been in the gym about two days a week. I’ve dropped about 6 pounds and feel good with my plan for that moving forward.

I’m eager to put another medal on my wall. I like collecting things. I really like that this way of collecting things helps me stay healthy and sober.