No turning back...

Ok, now it's official: I will be participating in the See Jane Run Half Marathon on June 5th. Otherwise, I just wasted $73 that could have gone towards countless other useful and important things, like shoes or makeup for example. Why someone would actually pay to be put through this type of torture is beyond me. Perhaps it only further proves my insanity.

Speaking of expenses, why is it that the things you need most are often the most costly? I'm in desperate need of a new, good pair of running shoes (my Marshall's clearance rack deals apparently aren't good enough to train for a half marathon in. Who knew?). After spending the greater half of the morning searching around the internet, deciphering between underpronating and overpronating, high arch or normal arch, and about a hundred different makes and models of running shoes, I decided I'm way in over my head and need to seek professional help. Yes, you read right, I'm going to seek the professional opinion of those wise, experienced (and expensive) people over at Running Revolution in Campbell. First I need to build up the courage to walk in and tell them "I have no idea what I'm doing but am competing in a half marathon regardless and can you help me find some shoes for this?". I'm also waiting until my bank account trains a little more for such an excursion, so to speak. More on this later.

So far, I'm two weeks in with the training schedule. All in all I have to say things are going relatively well, besides the fact that I still am not a fan of running by any means. I learned that at least 10-15 minutes of stretching at the end of a work out is critical, otherwise I wake up the next day and my hip flexors are the equivalent to an 80-year-old woman. I also learned that having a good playlist on my iPod really helps. I'm bored with all the songs I have on mine already, so I've been bouncing back and forth between various Pandora stations. Sometimes I even throw a little NPR on when I'm feeling REALLY crazy! "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is a personal fave.

Other feel-good endorphins come from the fact that I've managed to convince 28 other teachers/parents at school to do this silly race with me. Unbelievable! We've started a once a week, after school running/walking club to help us "train" ("train" meaning socialize with a little bit of jogging and walking dispersed between conversations). Now I definitely can't back out, because it looks really bad if the leader flakes.

I'm off to Macy's to use the rest of some wedding gift cards to buy a couple sports bras. That is definitely a topic worthy of its own post...