Mid Summer's Night Run

I'm going to do the Mid Summer's Night Run this year--the 2009 race is August 16th (the promotional poster is from 2008 because the new material isn't out yet).

My brother is going to run/walk it with me. My goal is simply to finish the race (or I should say to enter and finish it). I can do 3.1 miles--its a 5K--I know that, its just to enter a public event as a not-skinny person "running" gasp a race. I hated "the mile" in PE as a kid, but this race isn't about me verses the totally fit oddly 6 foot 8th grader in junior high, its about challenging myself and sticking to that challenge. I would like to run/walk it this year with a goal of running the whole time in 2010, but let's not put the cart before the horse.

So, what will be my reward? I think I'll give myself a polar heart monitor (here's a snazzy one):

You can hook it up to the polarpersonaltrainer.com site which allows you to set fitness goals and track your progress. There's also the fitbit which is cheaper and it tracks sleep as well, but it isn't a heart monitor, more of a very fancy pedometer. They really need to combine the two ideas if you wanted to know your every waking (and sleeping) day down pat, but for me, tracking yourself all day could get creepy and I'd rather just see what's the picture when I'm engaged in specific fitness activities (though I do agree geting your daily activities up is vital particularly in America).

Anywho, I'm not going to be in training for this race until May because my schedule makes it really difficult to engage in a cardio schedule, but I will try to focus on pilates and arm exercises during the week, with a Wednesday and Friday dedicated cardio workout each week.