Here I go again

This morning, as I was writing in my personal blog, bemoaning the fact that I can't seem to keep myself motivated to exercise on a regular basis unless I have some goal or purpose (other than a general "I need to exercise"), I jokingly wrote, "Maybe I should sign up for another marathon."

Then I thought, hm, when's the Long Beach Marathon? Do they have a time limit? It's close enough to drive, and it looks like a great course....

And then I put on my running shoes, watch, and cap, and went out and ran/walked 19 laps around the house. Took me 34:20 minutes, which isn't bad for having done no running at all since Honolulu. I did my old one lap running, one lap walking run/walk ratio, and felt pretty good.

I think I'm going to sign up for the Long Beach Half Marathon. For one thing, it's October 12, which is only five months, a bit short to train for a full marathon. For another, the course has a 7.5 hour time limit. They do have an early start for walkers—I'm not sure whether it's okay to start early if you're planning to run and walk, or if it's for race walkers only—but, bleah, I don't want to be on the course for that long. I'm getting too old for this stuff! Besides, I weigh another ten pounds more this year than I did for Honolulu, and I'll probably be even slower. And, for a third thing, I don't want to do the training for a full marathon. I've got other plans for Sundays—I go to the Buddhist temple from 11 am to 1 pm—and don't have a full day for running any more. I figure I can do my weekday runs on Tuesday and Thursday, and long runs on Saturday before work. I should be able to do a half marathon in under four hours, so if I get started by 7 am, even on the longest training runs I should be done by 11 am, and have time to get ready to go to work at 1:30.

Anyway, I ran today! Go me!

If I can finish the half marathon in under 3.5 hours, maybe I'll try Disneyland next year.