Skeleton Skamper Half Marathon Initial Thoughts

As you may know already from previous posts, I'm planning on running the Real Racine Skeleton Skamper Half-Marathon.  I'm most excited about getting the medal and hopefully being able to set a PR for 13.1 miles.  I received a single medal in my lifetime, which was for my placement in the Shamrock Invitational in my sophomore year of high school.  That was about 12 years ago.

In effort to hit my 400 mile goal for the year I set out on a 10 mile run a few days ago and hit that goal.  I've heard of people training for a full marathon running a 20 miler around two weeks from their race date.  I took the same ratio and applied it to a half marathon with the exception of it being a few days closer to the race.  I also planed some shorter runs this week in planning for that race, probably a 6 and 3 mile run by Thursday.  I'm hoping for 9:05/mi, or just under 2 hours, to be my half-marathon pace.  I think with the race time adrenaline, a better night sleep and better meal planning will help me shave that 30 seconds off the pace per mile.  I'm not sure if this goal is a long shot, but I did run 13.1 in 2h 7m 28s earlier this year and that wasn't even a race.

I'm trying to cut out simple sugars and stick to normal meals, fruits and vegetables but I'm addicted to candy.  I occasionally have a soda, but snacking happens mostly on almonds.  The occasional cookie or two...or three.  The usual dinners include a veggie, entre and usually rice or potatoes.  We'll see how that works.