Country Music Marathon

I may be losing my mind. Seriously. I officially have signed up for the Country Music Half Marathon. It is going to be April 30th in Nashville, Tennessee. I will be running it with my cousin Liz and my sister-in-law Megan. A few other friends (Mere, Bethanny) may possibly be joining us as well! The trip began as a tiny spark of interest in Decemeber after hearing from a co-worker who was interested in running in it. The spark grew and grew as I researched and looked more into the race. I became excited thinking about running such a long and challenging distance. Finally at the end of December I along with my cousin Liz decided we would really do it. Liz has run 4 half marathons in the past so I am using her experience and training advice as much as I can. She is being a great sport about helping me get ready to run the 13.1 miles. Yep, thats right 13.1 miles! It will be a very hard feat but the goals and reasons I have for running it are very personal and I think it will be worth all the sweat and effort put into it.

I have been running since my freshman year in college. I have been pretty consistent over the years but have had brief periods when I stopped (the longest being probably 6 months). I usually run about 4-5 miles 4-5 times a day on my treadmill. Though I am used to running I have not pushed myself to increase my speed much or my distance. I do not run outside as much as I should. This is one of the good things of running the half--that am now changing what has been a standard work-out for me. I find it fun pushing myself to make a quicker time or run a longer distance. The hill training is also something I am working on, which I gotta be honest and admit it is hard!

Currently I am running about 4 days a week. I run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I run the longer runs on Saturdays. I am building up each week by adding a mile to my distance. I plan on running 6 miles on Saturday. Up until now I have been averaging about 4-5 miles per run, sometimes running 3. My plan is to get to where I can run about 10 miles before the race.

I will try to keep everyone updated on how the training is going and what I am doing as I go. Wish me luck!!