Last Saturday marked the end of the Chicago Area Runners Association's half marathon training program, for which I was a pace group leader on Saturdays, the day we do our "long" runs. The target race for the training is next weekend's Rock n Roll half marathon. (For my non-runner friends, a half marathon is 13.1 miles). I actually really dislike that race, and it's ridiculously overpriced anyway at more than $100. So, I'll be skipping that, but I'm really excited for members of our group who are running their first halfs next weekend! Good luck!
I thought of them when I ran across this: 13.1 reasons to run a half marathon. I've run eight halfs since I began running regularly in 2007, and easily find these to be my favorite distances for races. I've done a few marathons and god, they're just brutal, the training AND the races. I like halfs because I have to work for them, but they don't beat the hell out of my body like marathons do. My current personal record, or PR, set in June 2010, is 2 hours and 12 minutes. Some of the 13 reasons mentioned in this article, such as "post-race party", are kind of dumb -- I mean, geez, I don't need a half to justify having a drink, or to buy running gear, or whatever. But, whatever floats your boat. I like the excuse of burning lots of calories so I can eat like a pig. Which I do.
Some members of our group will keep running with my co-leader Andie and I to run the Chicago Half in September. It's $90, I think? Ugh. I'm just getting cheap from having been unemployed, I guess. So I found a $50 race in October and will run that. Yay! No PRs planned, just hoping to run it unde 2:20.
Separately, on this date four years ago today, I had my last cigarette. I had gone on Chantix, a prescription drug, a week prior, which blocks receptors in the brain from receiving the "pleasure" cigarettes provide. We had had a super busy day at work, with my company reporting quarterly earnings. Later that evening I had a drink and my last cigarette, around 9 p.m., and took the rest of the pack of Marlboro Lights and soaked them under the kitchen sink faucet, so I wouldn't be tempted. Two days later I ran my first half marathon after a weekend of serious, awful withdrawal that included queasiness and shakiness. Everytime I run a half, I think of how awful that first half was -- and figure any half I run will be better than that one.
Running is soooo much better than cigarettes. :-)
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