Well, yesterday I decided that I'm not ready to run a full marathon. I do believe that I could run one and finish it, but it would not be fun. After training for some half marathons, and preparing for another, I decided that, for right now, I will stick to half marathons. So, I transferred my registration for the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February to the half marathon event. I'll still be going to Myrtle Beach and running early in the morning on February 16, but it will be 13.1 miles instead of 26.2.
I decided this while out running the other day. Believe it or not, I have enjoyed preparing for the half marathons that I've run. It has been enough running to keep me challenged without being so much that I end up burning out on it. I also still have that goal I need to meet of running an entire half marathon without stopping to walk. I came very close to hitting that goal a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not quite there yet. Until I can accomplish that goal, and do it a couple of times...until the half marathon becomes more routine than challenge, I will stick to making that my long run.
I do believe that running another full marathon is in the cards for me. Eventually I plan on being at the point where running a half marathon will be more fun than challenge and I will want to challenge myself at the next level again. But for now, I'm going to have fun challenging myself at this level. This will also give me the opportunity to run more races. Running a full marathon in February would have meant that I would not be able to recover in time to run some of the other half marathons that I am looking forward to running next year. By switching to the half marathon I will be able to run a few more of the longer races and keep challenging myself to try and improve my times.
For now, I'm still looking at Las Vegas as being a fun run to do. Not setting any specific goals for that race, at least not yet. I will be setting goals for Myrtle Beach though. Even though it's still early, I'm setting a preliminary goal of beating my last half marathon time of 2:16:29.
As I get closer to February 16, I'll decide what other goals I want to set for that race.
I decided this while out running the other day. Believe it or not, I have enjoyed preparing for the half marathons that I've run. It has been enough running to keep me challenged without being so much that I end up burning out on it. I also still have that goal I need to meet of running an entire half marathon without stopping to walk. I came very close to hitting that goal a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not quite there yet. Until I can accomplish that goal, and do it a couple of times...until the half marathon becomes more routine than challenge, I will stick to making that my long run.
I do believe that running another full marathon is in the cards for me. Eventually I plan on being at the point where running a half marathon will be more fun than challenge and I will want to challenge myself at the next level again. But for now, I'm going to have fun challenging myself at this level. This will also give me the opportunity to run more races. Running a full marathon in February would have meant that I would not be able to recover in time to run some of the other half marathons that I am looking forward to running next year. By switching to the half marathon I will be able to run a few more of the longer races and keep challenging myself to try and improve my times.
For now, I'm still looking at Las Vegas as being a fun run to do. Not setting any specific goals for that race, at least not yet. I will be setting goals for Myrtle Beach though. Even though it's still early, I'm setting a preliminary goal of beating my last half marathon time of 2:16:29.
As I get closer to February 16, I'll decide what other goals I want to set for that race.
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