This past November, I ran in my first Half Marathon. It was in Tulsa, so I kept things close to home. The training went so well, and I enjoyed the run so much, I immediately decided to up the ante and move up to the Marathon. And much to my surprise (and by surprise, I mean TOTAL SHOCK) my wife informed me she would like to train for the Half Marathon! Stephanie’s position as changed from “maybe he will stop running” to “I had better run if I want to spend any time with him”. It does take a time commitment, but with proper scheduling, we have been able to fit in essentially all of our training runs for the 14 week training cycle.
We both signed up with running groups at our local Fleet Feet store, and our training began Saturday, January 9th. Here we go…
The training schedule for our groups was geared toward running the Oklahoma City Marathon on April 25th, but our schedule would not allow for us to run at that event. We scoured the internet, looking for races that met two criteria: (1) near Oklahoma, and (2) near our target date of 4/25. We found what we were looking for with the Go! St. Louis race. We registered for our events on January 29th, and 3 days later the Half Marathon race sold out!
Not only is it close, but we have family & friends there that we do not get to see very often.
As a bonus, my parents are able to come with us and spend the entire weekend. We tried to talk them into participating in the “Mature Mile” run the day before our races, but after they looked at the pictures from last year on the website, they were worried they might trip over somebody’s walker or cane. So, as it turns out, their sole job is to cheer us on.
Stephanie and I already have our sights set on future Marathons and Half Marathons we are interested in running. We say that now, but let’s wait and see what our attitude is after the races on Sunday!