Finally entered for the Great Scottish Run!

At long last I’ve plucked up the courage and today sent off my entry form for the Great Scottish Run Half Marathon, on 2nd September, 2007, here in Glasgow.

As I’ve been running now for 8 months, I had a bit of a dilemma about whether to run for charity or not. On the one hand I figured I do the running for fun, and would probably have entered in the race regardless. So as I am gradually building up the ability to run that sort of distance anyway, where’s the challenge?

On the other hand, I watched the race last year, and figured it was high time I got off my arse and actually *did something* about getting fitter. Fitness is not the sort of thing you can order online like most else I need or want. So I’ve been putting in a lot of effort, and think that there’s still a heck of a way to go to be able to run it comfortably. It might be ‘fun’, but it’s hard work! I’ve certainly never run that sort of distance yet: The furthest I’ve managed so far is just over 10km, which is under half the half marathon distance of 21.1km. Any way you look at it, a half marathon is still a heck of a distance for a new runner, and I’m pretty pleased that I’m feeling good about the prospect of running it, but am still rather pensive about how I’ll do.

So I sort of settled on a compromise. As it is a new challenge, and that I intend to do it ‘properly’ (ie. no quick six week training programme! I’ve already started and there are three full months still to go!), I decided I would only run for charity when I first tackle a new distance. So for this – my first half marathon – The charity I will be running for is The Prostate Cancer Charity, and I’ll be posting details about sponsorship in the near future: I don’t want to start too early!

I have certainly been staring at the application form for a long time now, and had been in two minds about even trying the half marathon distance, perhaps going for the 10k instead. Indeed, I went for a run this morning and pushed too hard (I was trying a new, much flatter route so surprised myself by my apparent pace), so came back feeling rather exhausted for the duration I was out. But my problem is I’ve not had enough of a focus on the patience and pacing required for a longer distance. So now that I’ve actually *posted* the form and entry fee, I think I may actually find it easier to focus on going slower and racking up the distances, with pace as a much lower priority (initially at least!).

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