Running and cycling with Bill

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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Saturday, January 06, 2007

On to Tybee Island half marathon

After a long absence, I am back online. Finally stopped biking to work in mid-December, as it was getting a bit dicey on the roads, with icy patches and such, to say nothing of a spate of very cool weather. So I brought all my clothes home from work, and was quite proud of the 8.5 months I cycled, covering a little over 4,000 kms. And then the weather turned incredibly mild, and still is. I thought about getting back into it, but by then I had morphed into a morning run of some 35 minutes, getting ready for the 2007 racing season, and decided to call it quits for now. I hope to get back to cycling in March.

This coming Sunday is the famous Richmond 10k race, and I am working hard on that preparation. The weather could be astonishingly mild for the first time in history. Last year was bitterly cold.

With my 65th birthday coming up soon, my wife asked me where I would like to go or what I would like to do to celebrate, and it did not take long to decide that I would run a half marathon somewhere, on the weekend following my birthday. It also conveniently fits with the end of my contract at work and anticipated start of a new one a few days later. I will take a couple days off and we will have a four day weekend centred on Savannah.

So, a quick check in Runner's World, and we have made arrangements to go to the Tybee Island half marathon near Savannah Georgia. Should be a bit warmer than here, and as it is a fast flat course, I am hoping to do reasonably well. I have a huge amount of training to cram into a month, and have decided today to drastically cut back in the amount of food and wine I am consuming. I hope to drop about seven pounds by Feb. 3, the day of the race.

A colleague of mine at work is planning to do her first marathon in May, so we are encouraging each other to stick with our training plans. I have done a couple of marathons in the past, but now find the half to be an ideal distance/challenge.

Stay tuned for more frequent reports.