Journey to the finish line...

"If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it." -Pricilla Welsh

So a little over a week ago, I began my "14-week journey to the finish line." This is what the Sportsbackers half-marathon head coach, Ro calls it. My friend, Amy convinced me to drop a good amount of coin on this 14-week half-marathon training group which guaranteed that you'll make it to the finish line on November 12, 2011. Seeing how I am totally new to this whole running thang, I figured it was probably in my best interest to join the group.

So last Saturday, Amy and I headed over bright and early to the Richmond City Stadium to do our first group run; a mere 3 miles. It was pretty great actually... I felt awesome after I completed the total 3.2 miles. And I discovered that apparently there are A LOT of runners in Richmond. According Ro, a little over 940 people signed up for the training alone which means there will be sh*t-ton of people at the actual race who decided not to pay the $125 to be "taught how to finish this race."

Since there are sooooo many people, they divided us up into 9 different groups. These groups were arranged by your level of experience and your average pace. Amy and I are on TEAM ZEBRA which is a novice group. There's an intermediate group called "Red-bellied Cooter," which I don't know what that is and I'd rather not find out. I'll take being a Zebra, thank you very much! ...Anywho, the cool thing about this half-marathon group, is that it's supposedly a great way to meet new peeps which is pretty great because you're guaranteed to already have at least ONE thing in common... RUNNING.

Anywho... at the end of our 3.2 mile run, we received our training book which I'm basically referring to as my "Runner's Bible." The book is great with some pretty kick-a** inspirational quotes and the most important thing of all... our training schedule which goes a little something like this:

Sunday - cross-train
Monday - rest (although I will be at my local Gold's doing some weights instead)
Tuesday - short run (3 miles)
Wednesday - short run (3 miles)
Thursday - short run (3 miles)
Friday - rest
Saturday - long run (4+ miles)

Each week, the long runs get longer and after about a month the short runs during the week increase as well... Oh joy! lol I figure, if I follow the advance of my personal trainer at the gym and my Runner's Bible then I have no doubt in my mind that I'm crossing the finish line and poppin' some champagne bottles in celebration of the completion of my half-marathon journey! Wish me luck ...although I don't think that I'll need it ;-)

Just call me Forrest.



Me in the pink tee (on the right) just cruisin' along on my first group run :-)