My First Half Marathon

I ran my first half marathon at the America's Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego and I loved it! I'm a runner!

I'd been training for 16 weeks leading up to the race, logging in more running miles than I had ever run before in my life. My regimen started out by running about 6 miles a week and increased to 16 miles near the end. As I ran, I quickly began seeing the fruits of all of my labor. I started losing weight, my waist and tummy got smaller, and surprisingly, one-third of the way through my training I began to notice my asthma improving.

I was soon no longer needing to take meds before each workout (as I have for most of my life). A few days before race day, I began considering taking meds before the race and carrying my inhaler on me. Part of me wanted to do it as a precaution against an asthma attack on the road while another part didn't think it was necessary since I'd been training without them so well thus far. In the end, Allison and I decided that I didn't need to take meds before or during the run. We were going to trust my training and fitness level. And the race turned out just fine without them.

My running family: Garrett, Stephen, me, Tim

I finished my race in 2:06:01 with a 9:38/mile pace, four minutes under my goal. I am now hooked on running. If I don't run every few days I start feeling gross and soon begin itching to run. I'm hoping to do another race in the next few months.