Me as a Runner

I thought I’d take the opportunity to give you a little background about my experience as a runner as well as a few of my training goals.

First off, I started (technically) running in a Learn-to-Run 10k program in January of 2009. I followed that program religiously and finished my first 10k with a time of 1:11:36. I stopped running after that for about a year until I started jogging again, albeit infrequently. It wasn’t until April of this year that I decided to take running up again as a serious work-out plan. I had had a good gym pass at university and once home I was seriously feeling the lack of exercise. So I started running, programless, three times a week while upping my mileage a bit more each time. I felt directionless though and decided to start a training program. Having done the 10k, I set my sights on the half-marathon, with race day conveniently falling on my birthday. Now I’m in maintenance mode as I go into my next half-marathon in a couple weeks. I’ve also completed a few more 10ks over the last couple of years.

Now for the future-stuff. I am going to run a marathon. That’s that. I plan to run the Vancouver Marathon in May of 2012. In a few weeks I will start pre-training with runs five times a week, with the full plan beginning in December. I’m actually just excited to get started. I have no goals on time or anything like that; I just want to finish. After that, I’m going to run another marathon, and then another. I want to run New York, London, the Great Wall, and Boston if I ever get fast enough. I want to run a marathon on all continents but for Antarctica, and maybe there too. I want to travel to new places and discover the area by running through it. That may not sound fun to you but it seems like my idea of heaven.

Feel free to comment with your own training accomplishments and goals!

My Second Half

I gotta tell you, it was tough deciding just what I should discuss in my first real post. I have many comments to make about running, primarily because nobody I know is crazy cool enough to run like me. There’s a lot of pent-up running-related rambling up in this head of mine. Sorry if I spew anywhere near your new Nikes.

I settled on a rather pressing issue, which is an upcoming race I’m facing in a week-and-a-half. October 9th, 2011 y’all. Yes, Canadian readers, that is Thanksgiving Sunday (and by the way, Americans, Thanksgiving in November? You crazy. Wait… Brits don’t have Thanksgiving at all? What a world). And before you get upset that I’ll be missing Thanksgiving dinner, hold your horses folks, I’ve actually worked it out so I’ll get two. Here are the deets:

The BMO Okanagan Half-Marathon:

Does that give you a little hint about where I live? It’s close but not very. This race shall be run in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. It’s a fairly small city right on a beautiful lake. Around this time of year the weather is quite mild and I’m expecting a cool race day. This is my first time running the Okanagan Half but I know the city fairly well, and I also have family living there. That’s how I worked out the double Thanksgiving; one with my grandparents on the Sunday and one back home on Monday.

Find the race website here. It’s one of those family festival shindigs with a kid’s race, 5k, 10k, Half, and full marathon. It’ll run through the streets of Kelowna before ending up at the starting place. There’s little elevation, which bodes well for me, because I can’t avoid training with hills. Races always seem so much easier.

How do I feel about the race? Good, strong, confident. This will be my second time running the half marathon distance and I’m going into it with no expectations. My personal best time is 2:33:18. See the title of this blog? I run slow, get over it.  I’m hoping for maybe less than my PB but I’m really there to enjoy a weekend with my grandparents, the t-shirt, and the crowd feel.

I’ll post my race report within a few days of running it. Look forward to all the gory details!

Welcome!

Hello all, and welcome to my little blog about running. I’m a slow-ass runner. But I can run real far. And this blog is going to follow me during my journey to run real slow real far. Even farther.

Look forward to race reports, regurgitation of expert advice, and my own meandering thoughts about running and being a runner.

I’ll say this for the first time and not the last: I am not an expert. I am a runner with some experience but not a lot and please god, do not sue me if something I say ends up wounding you. I have literally no money. I am your typical starving student. If it weren’t for all my race shirts I wouldn’t have enough money to put clothes on my back. (I have exactly one race shirt).

Thanks for stopping by, and please comment! I’d love to hear what you have to say. Within reason.