When I ran my first Half Marathon in May of 2014, I had no plan.    I had not a care in the world other than finishing the race.   I literally went into it on a wing and a prayer.  No training plan and hoped to finish.   No idea.   Just planned to run.  I think all first Half Marathons should be like this.   Actually this is how all my first races no matter what the type went!

Things are a little different now.   It’s not that suddenly I know what I’m doing (because I don’t).   It’s just that I’ve now run a few Half Marathons.   Not many actually.   I’ve only run 4.   Although it seems like more.    The difference is due to all the different events that I have run in the last year, I do have an idea of what I can and can not do.   I’ve also followed actual training plans and have goals.     That being said, I am still figuring it out.

So next week, I will be running my 5th Half Marathon.   My first race that will count towards my 9 plus 1 program for NY.    This race has snuck up on me and I will admit that I have, sadly, NOT been doing any training for it AT ALL.    So maybe times are not changing as much as I would like to think.   I have been sporadically running, but not training.  Chalk it up to post marathon I need a break from training and am just going to run now.

Another reason I have not been training is because from the time I signed up for this race, I knew this was one that I was going to run just to run.  A way to jump into the 9 plus 1 early.   I do not plan on setting any type of PR’s.   Plus since it is a winter race, I was not and still am not sure what the weather conditions will be that day.   Therefore, from the get go this has always been a race that I planned to just run to finish.

See I am even borrowing a cute hat from my sister to keep me warm and have some fun:)

I will check out the weather later in the week to finish up what I will run in.

Now all this being said, I am still putting more thought into this than I did my first half.   I know that I am not running full throttle, but I still want to finish decent.   I would be happy with around 2:20 which is what I ran Gretta’s Gallop (same location as this half).   Although, I did have a great pace setter then that I will be missing this race.   (Robyn – the ski slopes can wait and  I miss you!)    But I do think it might be time for me to put my Big Girl panties on now and set my own pace.

YUCK!

This requires thought.

This requires knowing what I’m talking about.

and

This requires follow through.

So I found a online Pace Calculator and working it all out.

WHAAAAAAA

It’s so much easier to just follow along:)

Do you have a race plan?