Someone pressure me into running a half

Running is pretty healthy, right? The people that do it generally think that they “feel better” afterwards or have “a better outlook on things.” It’s all really just chemicals and dopamine and whatnot that causes these feelings; something about how exercising is good for you. It’s a whole lot of flim-flam, if you ask me, although I will admit that after a run I generally fell much better than before. My body must just be conforming to the hype. Over the last few months that I have been running, I feel like I have done pretty well carving out the ability to do a 5k with relative ease. Coming soon, however, is a chance to run a half marathon, the OKC Memorial Marathon to be precise, and I cannot decide if that’s something I should do.

Sure, it might be somewhat defeatist to actively doubt my ability before trying, but I have pretty much made a career out of that, so it’s par for the course. I do think that for the most part the goal is within reach. It might be four times my average run, but I can man up and rock its face. Right? The whole point is to break barriers and further yourself mentally and physically, so I’ve heard, but I haven’t been actively running that distance and there is now less than two months until the race.

Another factor in the decision is my stubborn desire to run barefoot. The longest that I have run unshod is roughly a 5k. I have been attempting to get that number up slowly due to wicked blistering, but still my top run is around three miles. Every time I run it gets easier, though, and the old skin that has blistered off has been replaced with skin that “gets it.” It doesn’t hurt and is a little coarser than before. Right now the only a couple of my toes “rub” as a result of running. It’s basically the same feeling you get when you wear crappy shoes that rub sores on your feet. Soon I hope these toes get in line and understand they might be subject to thirteen miles in the near future.

Outside of never running that far in training and figuring out if my feet are up to it, the third major hurdle is laziness. Rampant, unabashed laziness. A large part of me looks at the distance and cringes, not wanting to get out of bed to even think about it. Even so, I have on several occasions looked at the sign up page and nearly filled it out. Every time I wimp out, though, pansy-style.

So I need some encouragement. Someone push me over the edge. I don’t think it would take much, but it would help. If I can get a nice support base I would then only have to worry about managing the whole bleeding nipples thing.