Week 1: And so it begins...

How do people take such cute pictures of themselves before a run? I took 10 different pictures and this was the best. The rest were terrible. This one...not great, but it will work.

This morning I went on my first run of my marathon training. I am doing Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training. I am not a novice runner (in my 11th year of running at some level), but I am a novice marathoner. I do not have a time goal. I am not trying to set any records. Just trying to finish. So slow and steady is going to be my motto this time around. If I don't, I know I'll burn out. I know myself. I know that if I don't fight the urge, I will push myself too hard and end up with nothing but regrets.

I got up at 5:45 am to meet a friend at 6 for a quick 3-mile run. This is my running partner. We normally just do our long runs together. And long runs are all about talking, right? So I am used to talking to my friend while we run. Can't do that when I'm running a 9-minute mile. I felt like I was dying about halfway through - which is frustrating because I ran a 5K on Friday in a sub-9- mile - and then I realized that it's because I was talking. So I zipped it pretty much for the last mile. I responded to a few questions, but really kept the talking to a minimum, which helped.

We finished 3.03 in 27:45 - 9:09 mile. Not too bad for the first of many, many runs on this journey. 3 miles down, 469 to go. Eeek.