march madness

...of a different sort. On Monday, on a whim, I decided to enter a half-marathon--I've been meaning for some time to find a race to prepare for, in hopes of spurring myself back into training. And so when I discovered the Brooklyn leg of the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix was the next one, being completely batshit crazy, I vowed I'd do it--after all, the race ends in Prospect Park, so when I peel myself off the grass afterwards I'll only have to limp a few blocks home. But I've gotten ridiculously out of shape this winter (full-time job in Manhattan + travel + illness + bad weather = no more running 5k each day in the park, alas) and I've never run a half-marathon before--the longest race I've done was the 15k leg of the Istanbul Intercontinental Marathon.

So I have exactly one month to get ready (this should be amusing). It's going well so far, though. The early shift to daylight savings time means that if I leave my desk at 5:30--not always possible, sadly--I can get home in time to do a decent 5k before it gets dark. I ran about 6.5 km each day on the weekend, and am averaging about 4-5 on weeknights thus far, though yesterday I had to skip on account of my co-op shift. I'll do at least one 10k this weekend, and we'll just go from there.

On the start line of the first real race I ever ran (the Oxford town&gown, hah!) thariel and I decided we ought to run the New York City Marathon one day. Later, I promised myself to do it before I turned 30 (which makes 2011 the cutoff, but sometimes it takes a year or two to get a slot via the lottery). I may as well start laying the groundwork now.