Location: Highland,UT,USA Gender: Male Goal Type: Boston Qualifier Running Accomplishments: Fairly new to running (2 1/2 years). Hobble Creek 1/2 marathon PR 1:38 and something (2007). Provo River Trail 1/2 marathon PR 1:41:33 (2007). First marathon (St. George) 3:39:09. Short-Term Running Goals: Qualify for Boston Marathon at St. George Marathon (2008). I'd like to complete a Utah "Grand Slam," too. Improve overall speed and endurance now and in the future. Long-Term Running Goals: Improve speed and endurance. Personal: I'm a 46 year old male. I'm married with 7 children and 1 grandchild. I am 6' 1'' tall and 180 lbs. (I wish I were about 20 lbs lighter for running purposes, but realistically, I think I've lost about as much weight as I can.)
I started running primarily to lose weight (I've succeeded in losing 35 lbs over the last 2 years), but now running has become a part of me. I can't say I'm in love with the sport (i.e., I don't eat, drink, sleep it), but I enjoy the sport, and I really do want to improve.
I'd love to be able to drop 8 to 10 mins. off my marathon time (so I can qualify for Boston).
My biggest running issue is "failing to finish strong" and coming up short. For example, I'm OK through the first 8 to maybe 10 miles of a 1/2 marathon, but then I find it hard to motivate myself to push through the discomfort and fatigue of the last 2 to 4 miles. I tend to start off too fast and then fatigue sets in about mile 8 and end up running "positive" splits. However, the concern is that if I slow up at the beginning to save more for the 2nd half, I'll still end up running about the same overall times (I'll just feel a little better perhaps at the end of the race). I really need to improve endurance.
Currently, I do hill runs and speed workouts. I've been doing these more diligently this year than last year, but I'm questioning whether I'm seeing any vast improvements this year over last (as evidenced by the 30+ seconds I seemed to lose over last year's Provo River Trail 1/2 marathon time). | 
