I realized yesterday that Sunday was 6 months until the marathon! Ack! I know that doesn’t really mean anything, except that I will be starting my real marathon training in 2 1/2 months. It all starts the week between Christmas and New Year’s, which seems like it would be a hectic and inconvenient time to start it, but I think it will be good. And it’s not like I’ll be running much that first week anyway. In fact, I’ll probably be running less often, since the training program is only for 4 days a week.

But I’m getting ahead of myself now. I still have 2 1/2 months to get in better shape, to be able to consistently run for 30 minutes at a time. Actually, I need to be able to run 3 miles at a time, which I obviously can do (see 5K report, above) but consistency is the key here. Yesterday evening I went to the park after work, and went with the intention of running twice around. But without Kristina to pace me, I went out too fast, ran half a mile, got out of breath, and walked some. I walked to Sarah’s house, which is on the park, stopped and talked to her brother, and then continued on the dirt path that goes around the outside of the park, but then I felt a little silly. The only people who seem to use that path are good runners. I’m not ready for that yet. 😀 Plus, I’d probably trip over a root or something.

So I got back on the path, and finished the loop around the park. Mostly running. Just not all running, like I wanted to do. I really need Kristina to help me with pacing. Maybe that’s what I need to work on for the next 2 1/2 months – pace. I was thinking about asking for a heart rate monitor for Christmas, just a simple one to help me with that. We’ll see. This Christmas will be fun – last year I couldn’t think of anything I wanted except amazon.co.uk gift certificates (I love to read British books) but this year, it’ll be all running stuff. Shoes, clothes, little gadgets…yeah!

This afternoon, after work, I’m supposed to go running with Sarah. Yeah, we’ll see about that. She’s not exactly Ms. Reliable about these things.

Oh, yeah, and yesterday, I passed by LaSalle Park, in Metairie (or Kenner? not sure) and it has two running paths, one is 1.8 miles and the other is 1.2 miles. I’d really like to find a longer path (like the 6 mile loop around the lakes in Baton Rouge) but this one might be interesting. At least I can do 3 mile circuits instead of 1.77 mile ones.