Last week marks the official start of my half marathon training. I am possibly the last person on planet Earth who one would expect to run a half marathon– or, if we’re being honest, any race not marked “fun run.” My running experience amounts to high school track (and I may or may not have done my absolute best to never run more than a mile at practice) and the occasional “I should be one of those people who exercises” runs.  Before rashly signing up for this race, I ran about three miles maybe once a week (and that’s a generous estimate). My gym sessions consisted of Cosmo, the elliptical, and a few planks.

I have a friend who’s a runner. Like a real, go-out-for-a-casual-ten-miles runner. She’s done too many marathons and half marathons to count. She’s that kind of optimistic, healthy, perky person we all secretly want to be.

I once made the mistake of voicing my awe at her marathon experience. Her immediate response was to try to convince me to do a half marathon. I think I laughed. She comes from a family of hard-core runners, so she doesn’t quite understand that us mere mortals can’t just up and run a half marathon.

But over the next few weeks, we ran together sporadically (never for more than three miles) and she kept trying to convince me to do a half marathon. Her philosophy is that anyone can run a half marathon. Eventually, a small part of my brain began agreeing with her: after all, thirteen miles is only ten more miles than I was already running– how hard is it to run ten more miles?

Thinking of all the great Instagram humble-brags running a half marathon would afford me, I signed up for one in my area in March. March is beautifully far away. Since my runner friend will not be in the country this spring, I forced another non-runner friend to sign up with me.

I now have a 20 week schedule, which if I follow it, will “painlessly” get me from 3 to 13.1 miles. We’ll see.

Today, being a Sunday, is my designated long run day. I did 5.18 miles. And I rewarded myself with Starbucks, because I’m a runner now and I deserve it.