Damn you Brian!

My first thought upon finishing my volunteering - or maybe it was BEFORE finishing the vol work was, 'Brian, now we've got to train for and run this darn marathon'. As someone who's actually completed a 15k and run the 12 mile and 13.2 mile training 'long' runs, I can honestly say that I'm not sure I even WANT to run 26+ miles - after all that's a long way.

Well at the beginning of the last challenge I was 188 and this time I'm starting at 185. The disadvantage at this point is that I have a lovely and very active daughter to keep up with when I'm not training. (My wife is still there, but luckily for me she's a relative known and a great constant).

So it's on. My goals - stated and for the record:

• Lose weight
• Get back in peak shape - this is defined as completing a 4 miler in just over 28 minutes (fastest time - May 11, 2008 - 28:17)
  
• Return to running the half at around 7:45/mile pace (as I did just before Dylan was born in training - doesn't count!)
  
• Get quicker
• Run every race that I ran in 2008
• Run the mile much faster than I did this year (this is a 'gimme' since I didn't train at ALL for this race following Dylan's birth)

So things have got to change around here...I'm starting with the beer in take - must reduce to one per day! Also the training schedule, must increase to more than 1 per week.

I'm running the Corbitt 15k this weekend - let's see if I can manage to run this one faster than my last - a personal best always feels pretty good. Speaking of which, I'm starting on a much better base than we did last time; for example my last 10k was a PR (believe it or not) largely due to the corrals at the beginning, but I'll take it.

We'll let's see how this one goes - I'll keep updating as to how many miles per week and how the training goes.

I'm really looking forward to running my first half as I've been stymied twice in 2008 (Brooklyn with a knee injury and the New York with Dylan's birth day). It will feel great to complete that race in particular.