Sheer Joy and excitement...

So I keep asking myself if I REALLY think I can do this, train for a half marathon and run 2 in 3 months.  Do I really have it in me?  Can I really finish in under 3 1/2 hours as is required by the Princess Half Marathon pace?  Am I setting myself up to fail?!?!

Well, here's what I figured out....The minimum pacing requirement for the Princess Half Marathon is 16 minutes/mile and maintaining that for the entire 13.1 miles.  So, I felt like I was incredibly slow at the 5k, and was wondering how far I had to go to get up to pace for the Princess. 

So, I decided to go look at my splits for the Diva Girl's 5k.  According to the results website, My average was 16:50/mile at the Diva, this was with no training at all.  I set a goal for a pace of 17min/mile, and beat that by 10 seconds/mile, which doesn't sound like much, but it worked, and it is a HUGE success in my book.  So, basically, in order to be able to meet the pacing requirements, I need to shave 50seconds per mile off my pace, and I have 9 months to do that.  I feel like this is COMPLETELY do-able. 

So--I usually hold off on setting goals for anything other than finishing until the day of the race, knowing where I am physically and mentally.  How well I have trained, etc.  I am NOT going to get wrapped up in success or failure of the mission being based on time, but in a perfect world, I'd like to finish the Battleship Half in 2:45 on November 4, and then maybe finish the princess in 2:30.  These are pretty lofty goals right now, and I'm aware of that.  I have always said that people will rise to the expectations you set for them, so I'm setting my expectations high and shooting for the stars.

Krista