After weeks of running anywhere from two to four miles in my training runs I decided last Saturday (July 21st) that I would attempt an easy-paced 10K training run. I completed the run in 1:06:30 with negative splits and was surprised at how good I felt afterwards. So good that I found myself making a decision last week heavily under the influence of Runner’s Intoxication: I was going to attempt a Half-Marathon. 13.1 miles. I sat on the decision for a few more days, thinking the urge would pass, but it didn’t.

When I saw that the latest issue of Runner’s World Magazine was a “Half-Marathon Special” I took it as a sign and chose my event: The Pilgrim Pacer which will be held on Saturday, November 10th. It is sponsored by the running group I belong to, Trail Nerds, and it only seemed fitting that my first ever Half would be with the Nerds. It will be on a paved trail with some hills but no technical issues like the other trail runs I’ve participated in.

I have 15 weeks until race day and I’m going to put my one and only goal for this Half-Marathon out there to you all, my much appreciated support group, right here and now: To Finish! That is all. No records to set (whatever time I finish will be my own PR), no “I want to finish it in this much time” goals. Finishing is my goal. That is all.

To that end I am working on a training plan that will officially begin Monday and I’ve decided to relegate my running posts to Sundays during this training period and to do them in the form of weekly updates, hence The Half Times is born.

The Half Times, Issue One: The Week in Review for Sunday, June 22nd through Saturday June 28th.

I logged 11.1 miles this week. That consisted of two 4 mile runs at an easy pace and one 5K race event (covered in detail below). The first run of the week involved an improbable Doctor Doolittle scenario that I outlined on Facebook and will repeat here:

“All creatures great and small….”

This morning’s run was something akin to Wild Kingdom. It started with a small flock of geese who had no interest in yielding the path to a mere runner. Following that was an encounter in the woods with a large wild turkey who also was unfazed by my presence. It took some loud clapping just to get him to move out of the way of striking distance of the path. I broke out of the woods only to have a duck seriously nearly come in for a landing on my head. Judging by his cry I think it surprised him as much as me and I came away from the experience grateful that I didn’t have a head full of ‘duck pudding’. About 15 minutes later I came across 5 young deer who let me get within 40 yards before they gracefully ran off, only to discover they ran towards the creek and were boxed in, so they ran back across the path in front of me. Beautiful. I finished the run with the same 7 geese who this time, I kid you not, did a bit of gang intimidation tactics. Two waddled towards me from the front, honking loudly, four came in from the side doing the same and one flew in and landed behind me. I nearly fell over laughing. They quickly realized I was no threat and went back to eating.

It was quite the menagerie this morning and made for a fun way to start the day.

The second training run of the week felt amazing and was as animal-free as the first was animal-filled. I didn’t even hear anything scurrying in the woods.

I strength-trained 3 times and did one moderate cardio workout on the stepper early in the week.
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(Race photo courtesy of and property of KC Running Company. All Rights Reserved.)

The week of running ended with the KC XC Championships. In addition to the race for the teenagers they had an Open category for males and females aged 19 and above.

I was excited about this one because it was another first for me, this time running a grass course lovely Shawnee Mission Park, across the street from where my sister and her husband used to live in Lenexa, KS. I knew it would have some hills and I was curious to test myself against this terrain vs. the trails I’ve run and the road course for the recent Glow Run 5K. I knew they were giving medals for the top 3 in every age category (mine was 40-44) and while I was pumping myself up with visualizations of placing I knew I had no chance. My age group are a bunch of stalwart warriors at each race I attend, kicking butt and taking names.

My legs felt very heavy throughout the run but the weather was gorgeous (70’s with a cool breeze) and none of the hills were any more daunting than just being hills. I attempted to keep up with a specific runner who I thought was setting a good, but better than me, pace and he soon blew me away and for most of the run I was in this weird “no man’s land” with no one in catching distance in front of me and a good distance between the group behind. I kept up what felt like a good clip for me and before all was said and done I was able to catch up to a group and even pass a few people despite knowing that a good portion of the male field was well ahead of me.

Though I didn’t think I had it in me, when I topped the final hill I found I had the reserves for a good sprint on the straight away to the finish line and I kicked it in a higher gear and left it there despite feeling like it might kill me. In the course of doing so I set my best time yet: 26:42, averaging 8:37 miles. I was shocked, but even more so when I got to the table to check my official time and found that I had placed 3rd in my age group. Yeah!!! Of course I knew (and soon confirmed) that there weren’t that many in my age group (5) and so despite my pride the accomplishment is not as glamorous as it seems. When I checked the pictures this evening I noticed something I didn’t when I was running, which is that I was crossing the finish line at the same time as a fellow runner. I then went to check the results and discovered that this gentleman was in my age class and I beat him by 1 second. That second is no doubt because I was sprinting through and he was slowing down. I felt a little bad about edging him out of a medal. Since I cannot go retire on my winnings, I don’t feel too bad though. 🙂
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Topping off Saturday evening Mary and I returned to Lenexa, the site of this morning’s race, to meet with my long-time blog friend and health/fitness inspiration, Amanda, and her family. Pictured are Jason, Amanda, Mary and I as well as Morrigan, Laurence, and Ambrose. Amanda and her family are on their way to Wisconsin and were passing through Kansas City and earlier this summer we made plans to meet for the evening and have a meal together. I’ve been excited about this all week and it was so much fun. If you’ve seen Amanda’s posts about her fitness journey you know that she looks great. And the pictures don’t lie, she is looking fantastic. The whole family is super entertaining. Jason had us in stitches and their three boys are great. I have no doubt they were bored listening to the old folks (Mary and I) talk but they were polite and fun and were very patient.

All in all it was a wonderful evening and we had a great time meeting Amanda and her family. They did some searching on their way up and found The Holy Land Cafe. Mary and I hadn’t ever had Middle Eastern food and it was delicious. Thank you G. family for picking such a great restaurant and picking up the tab! We owe you. Next time!

Amanda, Jason: It was a real pleasure meeting you. Thanks for hanging out for so long and spending time with us even though you were all no doubt exhausted after such a long drive. I’m so glad that you set this up and made time for us on your vacation. You made us feel like we have all known each other forever. We appreciate you so much and are so thankful for the time we had. Hope the rest of your vacation is superb, look forward to reading all about it.

Morrigan, Ambrose and Laurence: Thanks for entertaining us, making us laugh, and for teaching us about geocaching. What a cool idea!

And that, dear friends, is my fitness journey Week in Review. Have a happy and healthy week!