Training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon - Day 1

IN THE BEGINNING...
I am starting this blog to keep myself motivated during my training and to hopefully motivate others to do things they never thought they could. When I weighed over 250 pounds, I never thought I would be able to run a mile, and I certainly couldn't given the lifestyle I was living. What I realized through a two year quest for weight loss is that the decisions I make every day determine whether I meet my goals or not. I also realized that 90 percent of what I struggle with on a daily basis is mental, not physical.
For the last two years, exercise has only been about adding more calories into my diet so that I can lose more weight. And although I am still not at my ideal weight, my focus has slowly been shifting towards exercise goals, rather than weight loss goals. I am no longer concerned with the number that pops up on the scale, but the number of miles I can go, or the amount of time I can run. It's a shift that I am truly enjoying because for anyone who knows me, you know there were times I would become VERY frustrated at that number on the scale. There were weeks where I did EVERYTHING right, and lost no weight at all.

WHY THE DISNEY PRINCESS HALF MARATHON?
A couple of months ago I had thought about training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon. I am a new runner and since losing 90 pounds, have found a new zest for exercise and meeting goals. I was already in the process of training for my first 5K (which I completed on October 31, YAY!) and I thought that if I could run the 5K, perhaps I could go even farther. Then reality set in and knew that taking the time off and going down to Disney probably wasn't going to happen. I let the thought fade and went on training for my upcoming race.
All of a sudden, last week my mother-in-law tells me she has booked a week in Disney for the entire family, which just happened to include the weekend of the Disney Princess Half Marathon! I have since thought about it, and I have decided to go for it. With the 5K race behind me and with a new found confidence in my running ability, I will be spending the next 4 months getting ready.

MY GOALS
Obviously my number 1 goal is to complete the Half Marathon. I'm not too concerned with the time at this point, I just want to finish. The minimum pace that you must meet during the race is 16 minutes per mile, which to me seems very generous and allows for some walking if needed. During the 5K race, my first mile was at a 10 1/2 minute pace, so I have some wiggle room. Although I will be training to run the entire 13.1 miles, I am not going to beat myself up if I need to take a breather now and then. This IS my first race after all.

DAY 1
I started my workout on the treadmill today because it was extremely cold outside. That is an issue I will have to figure out, because I have found that running on a treadmill is VERY different from running outside. It may be that I will have to learn to love running in snow...
I have decided that the best plan of attack is to continue to train using intervals, like I did with the Couch to 5K program on my iphone.
Today I started off with a 5 minute warmup walk, then did intervals of 5 minute runs and 2 minute walks for about 50 minutes. According to the treadmill I did a total of close to 4 miles. I felt really good about the workout and could have gone longer if I didn't have to go to work.
Issue to overcome: Working into my schedule enough time to be able to run 13 miles.
Perhaps I will have to invest in a jogging stroller so I can bring one or two of my children with me on these runs. I may also have to consider running in the evening, since I rarely have more than an hour in the morning to workout.