Resolution 1 - Run the Half Marathon - Progress Update

This past week I have been training pretty hard for my first ever race this coming Saturday, The Frozen Feat 10k. It will be a great stepping stone in getting ready for the half marathon in Fargo this May. Since my last update last week, the weather has started to get nicer with a few days in the 20s and 30s here so I went out and tracked down the course and did three practice runs this past week. I will give a shout out to my friend Justine who is also going to be running the race and went on one of the practice runs with me!

This winter running gear I mentioned a few blogs back has been working out great so far, and I am now regretting retreating to the gym as early as I did last fall. It feels so refreshing to run outside again and not to be staring at the same old monitors and treadmill numbers over and over. I am getting surprisingly comfortable running on ice and snow. No major close calls so far on the four outdoor runs I have been on this year so far, just a few minor slips which I anticipated and was prepared for and did not come close to tumbling over.

Forecast is looking to be fair for this Saturday with a high forecasted of 20 degrees, so it will probably be around 10-15 out when the race starts at 10am. On my practice runs I have been average a nine and a half minute pace, and my last run clocked in at just over 54 minutes. Looking at last year's results if I maintain that average I should be finishing up in the middle of the pack, which I am fine with but rest assured I am going to be trying my best. I have no idea if headphones are barred or not because I prepped up a pretty high tempo playlist to run the race to. If headphones are not allowed, hopefully being in a crowd of a few hundred fellow racers with many more cheering on will get my adrenaline pumping to new levels to help fuel me on.

Obviously I am psyched for my first race, and cannot wait to go out there and see what I can do. I will return with my next blog detailing how the entire race went down in a few days.