two half's make up for a whole?

Yes, I'm definitely doing a re-set. My two friends that I ran the Chicago marathon with last year are backing out of the race. We've all been dealing with injuries, heat/humidity, lack of time to train properly, etc. The main reason I wanted to run it again this year was more about the girls get-away vacation than the actual race. The three of us and our four daughters had so much fun last year! But if they're not going, and I haven't put in the miles necessary to make it a great experience, then I've decided it's just not worth the expense (airfare + hotel).

So instead of Chicago, I'm going to pick two half marathons in November to run instead. I pulled up the Hal Higdon Intermediate Half Marathon training plan and counted back from the date of the first half that I want to run. That would put me at 6 miles for my long run which I can easily do. Woohoo! The training plan looks so much more realistic to fit into my hectic life schedule than a marathon training plan. Feeling happy!

According to Hal's training plan, I should run a 10K race on 9/25. And as luck would have it, there is a trail 10K race that day! So I registered for the Harbins Park Trail 10K race.  This will be my first trail race of the year and it's only about a half-hour drive from my house. I've never been to this park before, so I'm looking forward to discovering new trails to run. But... I guess this means I'm going to have to buy more trail shoes. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my creek-soaked trail shoes out of the plastic bag after my last trail run... I found them two days ago with a wretched odor. No way that foul smell is going to release, so into the trash bin they went.

The Zooma Atlanta half marathon is on 11/6 at Chateau Elan. The registration fee is pricey, but I had a $10 discount code and it does include a necklace, technical tee, breakfast and wine... And it's less than an hour drive from my house in a scenic area. Looking forward to it!

I also registered for the Atlanta Thanksgiving half marathon. I registered for this more out of tradition than any other reason. I ran it for the first time in ~1995 and have run it several times since then. It makes Thanksgivings without my daughter more bearable (she'll be with her dad this year). Last year she and I went to Southern Cross Guest Ranch for Thanksgiving, which was awesome! I'm sure that's going to be a tradition for us on the alternate years when she's with me.

So, I've printed out the Intermediate half marathon training plan, shifted all the runs up a day so I can do my long runs on Saturdays, and began the program on Saturday. Instead of a 5K race, I went out for a 6 mile run (which was the plan for the prior week). I'll do week 4 this week. I'm so much more excited about this plan than marathon training. Woohoo!!!