A funny thing happened on my run the other day

When it comes to working out I'm as lazy as the next person, possibly more so. I can come up with a myriad of reasons not to go run in the morning. It doesn't take much for me to bail. This is why I always set a goal to run 800 miles every year, but I've never actually run more than 650 in any given year. However, since I ran 3.5 miles on New Years Day I'm on currently on pace to run 1,277.5 miles this year, I'm sure that pace will hold up.

Anyway, back to the story (which isn't much of a story, btw). I was in Dallas with the family visiting Jessica's parents for Christmas and my mother-in-law's birthday. On Monday morning I decided to go to White Rock Lake to run. It's a great running spot with a nice 9.3 mile loop around a small lake. One of the great things about running around a lake is that it's impossible to cut your run short because once you're 4 miles into this circuit, you're basically forced to do the whole thing, or swim across several hundred yards of freezing water (or hitch hike). I'm traning for the Aramco Houston Half Marathon later this month, and while I've knocked out a couple of ten mile runs, I hadn't done anything longer than that. I always like to do at least a 12 mile training run before a half, just to get my legs used to going almost 13.1 miles (13.1 miles is the distance of a half marathon for you non-runners). So I told myself before I  started that if I was feeling good as the 9.3 miles was coming to a close I might push it out to 12 miles, so I could check that off my to do list. The only thing I was concerned about was that I didn't have my running belt hydrations system (water bottles) nor did I have any gel to eat half way, which I usually do for anything over 9 miles. So I figured by the time I finished the 9.3 mile loop I'd be done from lack of fuel and water.

It was a near perfect day for running for me. By perfect I mean really cold, just above freezing. The only draw back was a brisk breeze that when running the right direction was COLD! I was making great time for the first 6 miles and felt really good. I started thinking maybe I could pull the 12 miler off. By the time I reached the 8 mile mark I started to have an even more crazy idea. I thought to myself, I could just go ahead and do a half marathon! As I did some calculations in my head I realized, not only could I do a half marathon, I could the fastest half marathon I've ever done!

So that's what I did. Frankly, the last 2 miles were pretty painful, and I don't recommend running a half marathon with zero water intake, but I basically ran my fastest half marathon ever on a whim. I was only left to wonder how fast I could have done it if I wasn't carrying 10 pounds of fat I've put on over the past 8 months. Now I've got a new time to beat later this month at the race. If you want to see my time, pace, the route, etc.   - Here ya go.  If not all that info, just look at the mile splits below.