I am going to walk the Rocket City Half Marathon on Sunday, December 15, 2024 in Huntsville, Alabama. There, I said it. That makes it real, right?
There's a 4 hour time limit, so I have my work cut out for me. An almost 500 pound man should be able to walk a half marathon in under 4 hours, right? Well, hopefully when race time is here, I'll have dropped at least 120 pounds.
This isn't my first rodeo. I walked the 2011 Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama at a hefty 400 pounds, and at that time I setup the goal in 2010 ish when I was even heavier at almost 600 pounds. Did I train properly? No. Was I fully prepared? No. However, I still did it with the help of a friend walking with me once a week for my long walks. My training was supposed include walking throughout the rest of the week, but I didn't follow my training plans very well. Anyway, although I didn't ideally train, I got a lot of motivation from this goal, and in the end lost a lot of weight and completed the race with a time of roughly 4 hours and 43 minutes.
The lowest weight that I got down to was 312 pounds, but I quit weight loss, walking, and blogging after a back injury, surgery, and surgery complications in roughly 2013. I just lost my weight loss mojo. Due to many reasons, I ballooned back up to 545 lbs. I restarted my weight loss in August 2023. I've gotten down to 490ish pounds, but I keep lacking motivation, which leads to discouragement and depression.
Exercise after back surgery was pretty much damn near impossible with out flaring up problems with my back. Well, since restarting my weight loss in August 2023, I have been able to exercise without causing issues, THANKFULLY! Thus, the desire and belief that I can accomplish this. Will I be fast enough? I don't know. Will I try my best and have a good time? Yes. It's all I can do.
Training Plan
The long walk will be every Sunday. Rest days are Monday and Friday. I'm starting out with walks scheduled by duration right now until approximately mid April. The time length will be slowly ramping up each week, and then in mid April, my schedule will switch over to distance, ie. Tues, Wed, Thur, and Sat 2 miles, and Sunday's long walk is 5 miles. Again, the distances will continuously be ramping up until race day.
I'm using a spreadsheet to keep track of my plans and also keep my walk data, so progress can be tracked and managed.
View my training spreadsheet.
Race Details
Race: Rocket City Half Marathon (There's also a full marathon, full marathon relay, kids marathon, 10k, and 5k.)
Date: Race weekend is December 13th-15th 2024. The half marathon is on Sunday, December 15th, 2024.
Time Limit: There is a maximum limit of 4 hours to complete the half. Thus, the minimum half race pace is 18 minutes and 18 seconds per mile. There is a pacer in the back, and if they pass you, you're out.
Details: There are two half marathons: A front half and back half. The front half starts at 7am (or 6am for early start). The back half starts at 8:30am - 9:00am via wave start, and also goes through the US Space & Rocket Center and Botanical Gardens. I plan on doing the front half, early start because there's no limit on the number of participants and the early start avoids heat. (I'm also hoping that if I'm not fast enough, I could possibly get an exception to start earlier to be able to finish before they shut down the course. I don't care about official timing. I can use my Apple Watch to track my route and keep my time, but who knows, maybe by then I'll be fast enough.)
So, this is it for now. Just putting this out there to have an exercise goal to work towards. I'll be keeping you updated about my half marathon and weight loss journey here and on
my social media accounts. If you'd be interested in walking the race with me, shoot me a message. Warning: I'm slow. Haha. I might have some friends join me on raceday if the stars align. So,
LET'S DO THIS!
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