Registered for Salt Lake City Half-Marathon!

So I just committed myself completely by paying for my registration fee to enter the Salt Lake City Half Marathon, April 16th, 2011.  There's no turning back now!  I figured this would be a good half-way point for my full marathon which will be sometime at the end of next year (still to be determined).  I think the SLC Half Marathon will be a good half marathon to start with.  Supposedly a good portion of it will be down hill.  It's also good that I am training at the higher altitude which will hopefully help me if I run the full marathon at sea-level.

I did just learn that there is a separate group for women like me.  Apparently, there is an "Athena" group for women over 140 lbs.  Holy crap!  I had no idea that 140 lbs was anything all that terrible!  I wonder if I get extra credit or an extra prize for completing the run.  Or do I just get an extra large bib for being over 140 lbs?  I guess it's hard to tell because maybe I'll have lost enough weight that I will be under 140 lbs by the time I run the race...I only have 5 lbs to go, after all.

It looks like I'll be following Hal Higdon's novice training program for now.  At least until some of my experienced friends give me a little advice on training, I'll just follow Higdon's.  I also just ordered "Born to Run" at the advice of my brother and Alesa who said it will definitely inspire me to run.

If anyone is interested in running the SLC Half-Marathon with me, it would be awesome to have you join me.  The website is http://www.saltlakecitymarathon.com/events/half_marathon.aspx and it's great to officially have my goal in marked down in my calendar.  Fingers crossed, I won't run the half-marathon, nearly kill myself, and swear that I'll never run a full one.  Hopefully it'll invigorate me to get my butt in gear.

A Run In The Freezing Cold

Today was my first day back in Salt Lake City after eating turkey for thanksgiving.  I spent the last 3.5 days in NYC and CT and had no limits in regards to eating.  I ate anything in sight and pretty much anything I desired.  This included:  Thanksgiving day dinner (3 helpings), Sabrett hotdogs (2 helpings), pizza in little Italy, and Matzaball soup and tuna salad sandwich at Carnegie deli (the equivalent of about 7 helpings).  I ran a total of 1.5 miles while in NY and felt like I wanted to die.

Today, I ran 4 miles at Sugarhouse Park with my trusty partner, Mogul.  The weather was a crisp 10 degrees F with sunny skies.  It was a beautiful morning to run.

I'm still working on my running schedule and will possibly join another gym to run on the tread mill, but I prefer to run on the pavement.  I'll let you know what I decide.