Thirteen miles is a long way

I just completed creating a half marathon course on http://www.gmap-pedometer.com within the confines of Palmyra and then bike riding the 13.1 mile course to get a perspective as to how long a run the half marathon will be. I rode the course on my Trek mountain bike and it required 1 hour and 7 minutes to complete.

I have been dedicating a fair amount of resources to determining what my pace should be throughout the 20K and half-marathon races. After experiencing first hand the magnitude of what I need to physically achieve by running for nearly two hours, I need to refocus on completing the race without hurting myself via cramped legs, sheer exhaustion, dehydration or any other malady.

I should be in a good position to fair well at my 10K race in Elizabethtown on August 23rd. I have been completed several runs recently in the 10-13K range. However, doubling my race length to 20K some two weeks later will prove to be a major challenge. My fate will largely be determined by how well my body holds up to my forthcoming long distance training runs of 15K to 20K.

I enjoy running from about thirty to forty-five minutes at a time. Once I begin to do runs in excess of one hour I find my running enthusiasm levels incur a substantial decline. There probably is a strong correlation between my current ability to run for over an hour and my enthusiasm.

I have days where I feel as though I can conquer the half marathon with confidence and others like today where I am asking myself what in God's name am I running for so long.