Almost there

I feel like I’m quickly closing in on the end of the first stage of my journey back to fitness. In 48 hours I’ll be 30 minutes into the Weather Channel Atlanta Half Marathon. Three weeks ago I ran in a community 15K which at the time helped build my confidence some, but now I’m back to wondering if I’ve run enough. I know I’ll finish the half marathon, I just worry about finishing with grace a dignity. Will I run it in under 2 hours or will things fall apart on me? I ran the 15K in 1:07:12, which put me 10th out of 114 and first in my age group, but will that translate to the half? Will I be able to finish strong? I know I won’t be any where near front runner status in a race this large, not these days, but I don’t want to be pulling up the bottom of my age group either.

The last time I ran this particular road race, I ran it in 1:31 and change, but that was 9 years ago and I’d been running a good bit longer than I have this time around. I have a hard time keeping it in perspective that I’ve only been running since mid August. To be honest, I don’t think I have the love for it I once did. It’s fairly safe to say there isn’t a marathon in my future any time soon.

My official line on the half is that as long as I finish it in under 2 hours I’ll consider it a success, but in honesty, if it takes me more than 1:45 I’m going to be disappointed in myself. Of course, the only way I run 1:45 or better is if things going well during the race. That doesn’t leave much room for side stitches or going out too fast and crashing, which happened on my 10 mile training run a couple of weeks ago. I’m counting on all the hill training to pay off for me big time Thursday :)