I’m three weeks out from the Baltimore half-marathon, and feeling very excited.  I ran this race 4 years ago, in 2004, and discovered that Baltimore has hills!  This is not the thing you want to discover in the middle of a very long race.  I slogged through the race, coming in at 2:37:19.  That works out to be just slightly over 12 minute miles – bleah.  Or, more positively put, a time which gives me a lot of room to improve.  I’d like to come in at sub 2:15, which gives me 10:17 miles to work with.  (Confession time: I’m slow!)  On a treadmill, I’ve done 12+ in less than 2 hours, so this should be doable.  And this time I’ve added hill intervals to that treadmill workout.  Race day will prove whether I’ve done enough training and whether I’m smart about using these last few weeks.

So think about me October 11.  The race starts at 9:45, and I should theoretically be done sometime right around noon.  I’ll have a few minute delay to cross the starting line, since I’ll hang back with the slower runners for the starting lineup.  After that, though, the race is mine!  My daughters ask me if I race to win…  my answer is I race to beat myself.  I want to get faster and stronger.  I’m already thinking about my goals for after the half (marathon in the spring – not sure which one yet).  There’s just something about shaving time off, and pushing to longer distances, that really feeds the striving ambitious side of me.  If you know of a local race that sounds interesting, tell me about it: Saturday races work better than Sunday races, since I don’t run fast enough to let me run and then get showered up and ready for church.