Signed up!

Believe it or not, the last time I ran a good, peaked half marathon was at Santa Cruz in 2009. I really enjoyed this race, and not just because I got a PR but because of the beautiful views and the fact that the course is pretty flat.  

Since then, I have run only one half marathon (Pasadena), and that was impromptu (and with a mild head cold). Back in 2008, I ran the SF half marathon as my first  long race ever.

So if you just did the math, I have only run 3 half marathon races. Why so few!?

I think it is because my weekend time is so precious, I really have to plan ahead for my races...given that,  I'd rather do a marathon.

The marathon was also very alluring to me because its just so complex compared to shorter races. 

In both of my Jill-coached marathons she had me do a half marathon time trial about 4 weeks out from marathon day as a benchmark (to see how I was peaking). This is not ideal: a time trial on the roads is not the same as a race situation. You will tend to go more slowly.

This spring it so happens that Santa Cruz is *exactly* 4 weeks ahead of Tacoma. Therefore, I have signed up! 

I would like to take my 1:51:26 PR down to the 1:49:xx range. I think this is quite doable, even though I'm 4 years older (gulp!)