Half marathon - is it even possible?

Right.

I'm an unfit mum of a 6 month old and I'm thinking about setting myself a goal to run a half marathon in August. Does anyone know if this is even possible or whether I'm setting my sights too high. I walk about 30 min twice or three times a week but that's it.

However, I have just purchased a proper running buggy, don't have to go back to work until the end of May, and have a supportive hubby.

If I do this, I'll be doing it very publicly so I can't back out... but my first question is whether it's even possible. And does anyone have any training programme.

Can I do it or am I dreaming?

Edited by BecM

Is it a half marathon or a full marathon? I would think a half would definitely be do-able, however a full marathon needs about a year to prepare for.

Try to contact your local Joggers and Walkers club, they should have a programme for training and there will be other people who you will be able to train with.

Oh sorry, yep definitely just a half marathon!

Is it possible? Most definitely!

What a great goal to set for yourself. I ran a half when DS was 6 months old. I have run quite a few before so knew what I was in for in that regards. The hardest thing I found was the time for longer runs as DH was working long hours seven days at week when I needed to be doing them. I would be ready to race out the door the minute he got home for lunch, and I just had to pack DS up and take him to the grandparents to get in runs longer than an hour.

I believe any person who sets their mind to it is able to run a half marathon with a minimum of 3 months training. You have 6 months to prepare which is great for a first attempt at a half.

My advice would be to start running now in place of your 30 minute walks, or at least running for a few minutes every now and then when you go walking.

You should be able to find some training programmes using google. Everyone is different though so I would probably check out a few of them to see what might suit you. For example some people like to run the full 21km or close to it in training so they know they can do it while others are happy to run say 15km max in training. The other thing to be careful about is how often to go running. Some programmes may have you running 6 days a week which could work for you but I often see people who are new to running get sick and tired of going out 6 times a week by the time the race comes.

There are training guides on southlandmarathon.co.nz I just had a quick look at the novice one and I don't think they are many runs over an hour, and I would recommend doing a few of these so it would definitely pay to get a couple of different ones to compare.

Hope some of this helps, and this is just my opinion. All runners will have their own views about how best to go about running your first half.

Best of luck.

Edited by Jojo8

There's a local marathon on here next month, and they have a training programme for entrants....it's over 20 weeks. Here is a link to it My sister is a keen runner and is doing it.