Thursday, July 10, 2008

40 Half Marathons and Counting

I completed my 40'th half marathon last month in Juneau, AK. This is the first time in quite a few years that I don't have a 1/2 marathon on my training schedule. My first half was completed at Disney World in January 2001, a year after running my first marathon at Disney as well. Of the 40 1/2's that I've run, February has been the busiest month by far: 9 were run in February. April was the next closest month with 5; I've run at least one 1/2 in each of the calendar months.

2003 was the year that I decided to run 1/2's or fulls in the 50 states; I was also focused on runnng the 1/2's under 2 hours and eventually breaking an 8 minute per mile pace. It took over 5 years and 15 attempts to finally break the 8 minute mile pace/sub 1:45 barrier. I ran 1:44:07 at the Texas 1/2 in Dallas in February 2006. In June of 2006 my other goal of running sub 2 hours was busted at Hospital Hill in Kansas City, MO. 2006 (11 yellow) was my most productive year in running states closely followed by 2007 (10 purple).
I will complete my 34th state this October when I run the Chicago Marathon. I hope to run 2 to 3 1/2's a year after that and complete my 50th state when I turn 50.

2 comments:

K said...

I know you've already got a Texas race, but I hear that the Huntsville 1/2 is a tough little course! I was thinking of giving it a try this year. It is in October.

Pat said...

Its on my radar; however, its the day before Chicago marathon this year. Maybe next year.