The last time we ran the BAA Half Marathon, in 2022.

The Boston Half Marathon is on November 9th.

I guess I’ll still reserve this Sunday space for writing about how the running is going until then, at least.

It’s not that far off.

There’s October 26, and then there’s November 2, and then it’s the half marathon.

I’m trusting that my body will be holding on to some of the marathon training until that point - because that leaves just a few weeks of running to gear up for a half marathon, and this week is not going to be intense.

I decided to continue my rest and recovery through Saturday and Sunday - I work from home on Monday so I’ll find some time in the morning to get a run in.

I’ll probably mix in a leg workout this week, maybe a longer run mid-week (I’m not sure about intervals this week but it’s not out of the question), and then maybe hit double digits next weekend.

I am kind of playing the build-up to this half marathon by ear.

I’m not putting together a plan, I’m not going to do any 10-mile interval runs.

I’ll just see how my body feels, keep the runs at about 11-minute miles, and go from there.

The Boston Half is a fairly challenging course. (The e-mails have said it’s changing a little bit this year but I don’t know that area of Boston well enough to be able to recognize exactly what’s going to be different.)

I think it’s the same at the end, where Mile 12 climbs a pretty big hill.

I ran it once before, in 2022.

I ran it with Kevin - he made the trip up and we ran the race together. I was not in the best shape for that half - I had run the Boston Marathon that April and didn’t do a lot to build back up for this half.

Kevin was in great shape for that half - I probably held him back a little bit.

We finished in 2:26:08 - at about an 11:06/mile pace.

I’m kind of taking the same approach I did that time - I just ran a marathon…I can run a half.

Last time that was flawed because the marathon had taken place six months earlier.

This time the difference is just a month.

I don’t think it’s unrealistic that we could beat 2:26 this time around.

I’m not out to set a half marathon PR. (I ran one in 2:02…and some day I’ll take a shot at a sub-2 half marathon.)

I just want a nice, steady, enjoyable run with my friend.

It will be nice to have a race with no time goals attached to it to finish out this year of running goals.

I do have one goal attached to this race, of course:

It’s the last race in the BAA Distance Medley.

And to achieve that goal, all I have to do is get to the finish line.