Thank you Sir, may I have (half) another

OK people. Guess what I've done? I've signed up to run in the St. Jude Half Marathon. It's December 6.

I started back on the treadmill last week after being on the D.L. for 12+ weeks from my tibial stress fracture. I am taking it very slowly. Very. Slowly. I do NOT want to risk any injury again.

Running the marathon in June was truly one of my greatest accomplishments of my life and I would not trade that experience for anything. But I am beyond certain that I don't want to run another full marathon. No way. No thanks. It definitely took its toll on my body. Plus, the training for a full is just a huge commitment. The training was difficult. The recovery was challenging. (My toenail still has not grown out....) Face it -- I'm old people.

So I'll tackle another half. I have completed one other official half marathon - the Germantown Half Marathon - last March. And definitely put in the equivalent of half marathon mileage each weekend during my marathon training. But I've lost quite a bit of that conditioning after the stress fracture.

This effort may be more of a walk/run rather than a run/walk, but I know I can do this. I know there are many participants who walk the entire half marathon. They are capping the entries for the half marathon at 8,000. It's a good sized race. Last year, there were over 5,700 runners in the half and the slowest time was 4:47:00. So I could possibly be at the FRONT of the back. Ha Ha.

Anyhoo, the course looks great. It is described as being "relatively flat" (hooray since I HATE HILLS!). And goes by lots of downtown Memphis landmarks includnig the Forum, the Orpheum, the Pyramid, Beale Street and the zoo. It finishes in AutoZone Park, home of the Memphis Redbirds.

Wish me luck people.