Hi Everyone, and Happy June..... My longest run to date of 7.0 miles today..... HOT AND HUMID weather in NC this weekend, so DH and I set out at 7:00am to a muggy 70 degree run. Felt Good, held to my 12:00 mile pace with the help of Garmie and some tunes, and really enjoyed the run today. Stopped at mile 5 for a hydration stop, very brief, and back out to finish the last 2 very strong. I NEVER would have ever dreamed a year ago that I would be pulling 7 mile runs, and I am so blown away by my progress. Thanks MrPHinNJ for all your advice, and helping me achieve my goals. I have to ramp to 18 miles this week, and I am so thrilled. Theresa- sometimes you need a week to just re-group. I had a ton of work complications week before last, and missed a few runs. I was stronger than ever last week due to the lay off. Sometimes a little break can prove invaluable. Rock on Girl! Happy Running, and a good and safe week to all~

Congratulations, Cheffy! Keep up the great work! 7 is a great distance. You really will be surprised that each additional mile gets easier. NOT easy, though, lol! For me, 7 to 9 miles is still the hardest - after that, I think I'm just on autopilot! Mark, I'm 45 - not young, for sure, but definitely crazy. I've only been running for a year and a half - only 6 months of "serious" running, since I found RA. 36 miles used to be my normal mileage! This is a great forum - hope to see you more!

Hi all. I'm currently planning on running my first HM in September and in the process of upping my mileage before I begin a training plan in July. Right now I'm averaging 20+ miles per month and hope to be at 30+ by the time my half rolls around.

I'm on the same timing for my first HM, although my long runs aren't as long as yours yet (I did 5.88 on Saturday). Good luck and I look forward to seeing your progress. This week is a bit of a rest week after pumping mileage and intensity for a couple of weeks. The plan is: 2x 3 mile runs, a 4 mile run, a 5k race for Friday night and a 5 miler on Saturday morning. My 3 mile run went alright today, although my knees and hips were a bit touchy after strength training yesterday, per the normal.

Teresa Congratulations to your son. My son didn't beak 10 min 3200 unitl his junior year, but as previously discussed, he was concentrating more on the 5K Okay so here it is Race Report time. Now remember my goal for my very first HM was 8:00-8:05 pace, hoping to break 1:45:00 which is an 8:01 pace. My official time is 1:44:26 @ 7:58 pace "YEAH" I was 104 out of 560 runners and 10/32 in the 50-54 age group. However, I have to tell you that I am not exactly pleased with my performance. I died mile 10 and especially mile 11 (9:02) and had to gut it out. So here is the rest of the report. the 10K went off first a little after 8AM. We started from a different spot about 8:20 (A few minutes late) The sun was already out and very hot, even though the temperature probably didn't hit 80 it was a strong sun. Got to the first mile marker and it said 10 minutes ( and hit my watch). I said this is not right and quickly figured out it must be for the 10K. Mile 2 was also for the 10K (and I hit my watch). I got to mile 3 and the sign was different, but I still wasn't sure what my time was. Got to mile 4 and the sign was the same so I said allright, this must be for the HM, so I hit my watch. The problem is, that without my glasses I can only see my lap time, not the smaller total time above it, so I had no real idea of what my time was. I aksed the two guys running next to me if either had a GPS and one of them said yes and confirmed we had just passed the 4M marker and gave me my total time which was 31:12 or about a 7:48 pace. I got a little cocky and keep my pace running 7:44, 7:45, 7:35 for the next three miles, then slowed things down. 8:04, 8:06, 8:13, then dropped to a 9:02. picked the pace up to 7:43, then finished with a 8:53 last 1.1 miles. The mile markers were screwy and confusing, and then out on the course they had a coulpe of clocks going, but you never were sure if they were the 10 K of the HM. Overall, I'm very pleased, but disappointed because I struggled on the course. Probably a combination of not having done a long run in two weeks and running that tough but great PR 5M on Memorial day. But I got that demon Memorial 5 Miler course out of my system. So next year, I'll skip that and concentrate on this HM and rotate back and fourth between the two in the future (if they are on consecutive weekends) Overall,. this was a pretty good race, lots of people. Like I said 560 in the HM and something like 273 in the 10K. I'll know better with the markers in the future and map it out on my own. They had three different DJs playing music, two out on the course and we looped back through the start area to hear the DJ there as well. Registration was a real "BITCH" It's the first time I preregistered for a race. So you get there and they direct you to a table that has all of the names on 8 1/2 X 11" paper with your bib number. So you have to stand in line to get there (not too bad). Then you had to go get in line now to get your bib and timing chip, probably 10 mins. Then you had to go stand in line again to get your shirt and the rest of your packet, another 8-10 mins. Good thing I was early. Thanks to all my friends here for the encouragement and support. Mandy, we're still waiting for your report?

no report from me. the night before i ate out and had something dodgy. spent all night up being ill with a bad case of food poisoning. i still haven't managed to eat properly almost 3 days later. so no race. i was a DNS well done larry - sounds like a cracking race. my guess is your late race crash is caused by going off too fast. no matter how easy it feels at the time 10 seconds or more a mile is going to cost you big time in the last bit of the race. still - you had a stormer - well done! you must be looking forward to the next one.

Great race, Larry! As Mandy says, I am sure you would have done even better if you had not got so excited at the start. Excellent race, though, i hope to run that fast this fall. Tough luck to have to miss the race, Mandy, I am sure there will be more races later in the winter (our summer.) Simon.

Larry, great race report. It sounds like maybe you did go out too fast but I think that is VERY easy to do, adrenaline and all. Mandy, too bad about the stomach issues. You've been training hard, maybe there's another in the area you can do. Well, my first HM is scheduled for Saturday. Last Thursday we ran 12 miles on same type of trail at the same time of day as the race. It was a little rough. But I was having no doubts in finishing the race. Sunday night I thought "my nose feels kinda stuffy". I've been training since January. I read about everyone's woes with the nasty flu bug and I just sailed through the winter. Now it's Wednesday, I've been taking Nyquil at night, Dayquil during the day, taking "cold-eze" every 2 hrs for the past two days. I called off work today and I'm sitting here with a box of tissues. So far its just in my head, not my chest, so I haven't given up on doing the race but I have no idea about the shape I'm going to be in. I managed to get 3 miles in after work on Monday and that has been it. I was planning a slight taper but this is not exactly what I had in mind. Right now it's pouring rain, but it's supposed to be hot and humid by the end of the week. So we'll just have to see what happens. Whatever my time will be a PR!! Race support shuts down after 3 hours so I'm hoping to beat that. Happy and HEALTHY running to you all!!