After riding the Seattle-to-Portland (STP) bike ride back in July, I seriously fell off the work out wagon. I've worked out sporadically, but nothing consistent. I realized fairly recently that I need a scary event to which I've publicly committed to work toward. The first 5K I ran and STP both served this purpose. It's time to up the stakes again.

I just signed up for the Mercer Island Half-Marathon, set for March 25, 2007. I have just under three months to get ready. Even though I've never run more than six miles (and have been slogging through my recent three mile runs) this should be plenty if I'm diligent.

I don't really have a firm goal time. Based on my best 5K, the Runner's World finish time calculator estimates I should be able to do the run in 2:02 (that's two hours, two minutes, btw...).Breaking two hours would be fantastic, but frankly, just finishing would be a big accomplishment and is really the goal.

I thought about taking on a 10K instead, but since I've already run six miles before, it didn't seem as scary. 13.1 miles is scary. I'm definitely going to need to stay focused to get this done.

Just to head off the inevitable question, I'm not sure if I want to run a marathon. The MI Half will be a good milestone if I want to run a full marathon later this year (maybe the Portland Marathon on October 7 or the Seattle Marathon on November 25. It occurred to me that if I want to run a marathon before I turn forty (April 2008), I probably need to do it this year. Now that's really scary.

Anyway, I'm kind of looking forward to this. Who's in?