Toronto Half Marathon Withdrawal

All of us have priorities in our lives we must constantly juggle. Over time, new priorities surface and old ones are retired. Over the course of this year I have had a laser focused dedication to training for a long distance run. Initially I had my sights set on a 26 mile marathon and then set a more reasonable goal for myself at the 13 mile half marathon.

For all purposes, completing the twenty kilometer race at Yale University in Connecticut on Labor Day fulfilled my goal of 'running long'. A half marathon is 21.1 kilometers long. I know personally I have the ability to complete a half marathon. The New Haven Road Race 20 kilometer race was an awesome accomplishment for myself. It was a beautiful day, the course was fun, and I completed the 12.4 mile run with relative ease. Adding to my enjoyment was my wife and kids had a great time in New Haven also.

While I am disappointed our family will not be traveling to Toronto and visiting the zoo there and seeing Niagara Falls for the first time, we were facing going much more in debt to finance this trip. My wife will be returning to Penn State to complete her Bachelor's degree and we need to focus our efforts on making this happen.

I will continue running this year into October. It does appear there is not much road racing from November until April of next year due to the cold weather here in Pennsylvania. I hope I can keep maintain my fitness during this running off-season.