Only Halfway

I've experienced another extended stay away from blogging of late. Other things, namely work, seminary classes and church activities, have taken up the bulk of my days of late, leaving precious little time for blogging. Even this post is covering material that is now a week old...better late than never I guess.

Last Saturday, I ran the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, Tenn., with my good friend Scott from Atlanta. I finished in 2 hours, 31 minutes and 6 seconds, just ahead of Scott's time of 2 hours, 32 minutes, and 14 seconds. (Click here for a sampling of photos from the half marathon. This one is my favorite.) Last year I finished in just under 2 hours, so I was a little disappointed in this year's time. But honestly I didn't train as much or as hard for this year's run as I did last year's either.

When I first started this blog, I announced that my goal was to run the full marathon in Nashville. Well, some knee trouble, starting seminary classes and some time missed due to sickness all worked against me in getting the necessary training in for the marathon, so I scaled back and decided to run the half marathon again this year. I know there's nothing easy about running 13.1 miles, but once I scaled back from the full marathon to the half, I didn't take the race as seriously because mentally I knew I had done it before.

I still want to attempt a marathon in the near future. I'm considering running the Chicago Marathon in October. I'm also considering a sprint triathlon this summer, just to do something different. Any advice or suggestions on what marathons I should consider running are welcomed and, in fact, encouraged.

Before leaving Nashville last Sunday morning, I met a gentleman at the hotel from Ohio whose goal is to run a marathon in every state. He was up to 16 or 17. I like to run, and I like to travel so blending those two loves would be fun, but I think I better try to get one marathon under my belt before I set out to do 50.