Well, week #1 of my training for the Holly Springs Half-Marathon is in the books.  I am amazed at how not fun running is when you haven’t done it for four years.  It’s humbling to say the least.  Not to mention, this is not Florida and I’ve always run on completely flat courses.  Even the little hills around here are noticeable on the quads.

I’ve found a course in the neighborhood that’s about three miles, with a 1.2-mile loop.  This makes it pretty easy to add on mileage as needed.  Tonight was my third run and my quads don’t seem to hate me quite as much as they did earlier in the week.  I figure by next weekend it will start to get easier.

I’m still doing short runs — tonight was a little under four miles — and I only have 11 weeks to ramp up, so I’m going to have to start adding on mileage pretty quickly here.  I’m also cutting down to 9 cigarettes per day tomorrow and hope to be completely quit two weeks from now.  That will make a big difference.

I also need to start looking at locations for some longer runs.  I really want to get out of the neighborhood, but I don’t really know where to go.  There’s a run club in town, so maybe I’ll start trying to catch up with them for some of my runs.  I’m took self-conscious right now to run with a group.