Philadelphia’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon – Why I’m Doing This

I’ve decided, yet again, to set another “personal best” challenge. On July 16, 2012 I am started training to run in the 2012 Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon.

I guess I could start with a few reasons as to why I am going to endeavor this goal:

First off, this is part of my 6th degree black belt test April 2017 (watch a short video below of my 5th degree black belt test from October 2011); and one of the most important things, I think, is that the “test” has to be partly about taking on challenges that you would not normally consider doing because, well, simply you don’t like doing it!

I’ve never liked running! It was just too “hard”. I did it in the past because my coaches would force me, but my heart was never in it and my attitude was always bad.

So my challenge with this half-marathon is to train smart, complete the marathon and ENJOY the journey!

Another important reason to do the marathon is that I want to teach my students the importance of setting high-level goals, creating a smart plan of action, following through to completion and documenting the journey for others to learn from.

I also want to use this as an way to bring attention to and raise money for a couple of causes that I feel strong about. One cause is the  HERO Housing Project – Build A School in Alabama with Tom Callos’ The100. and the other is the American Cancer Society DetermiNation.

There are many other reasons and I’m sure I’ll share them in upcoming post updates.

So here’s the deal – I am 51 years old, 5’10” tall and weigh about 185 lbs. I’ve never done a marathon before and I realize that I’ve got some work to do. I started running this past Monday (7-16-12) and I adjusted my diet dramatically. I am not planning any weight loss/gain goals but will document them here in my updates.

The first step in this process is to get myself to a point where I can run at a moderate speed for 180 minutes (3 hours) continuously. To do this, I am employed a 6 week pre-training program that will give my body a strong foundation (trained muscles, joints, tendons, etc.) — which I completed on July 15. On July 16, I started my training for the half marathon. I am using an app on my Android phone called Training Peaks v3.0.2 from Runners’ World for my running plan. I am also doing crosstraining. I also purchased Nike+ GPS Sports Watch to accurately monitor and document my mileage.