What, Me Run?

Every single time that I've decided to take on a running only race, and subsequently announced it here (Ragnar Ultra in 2011 and the 2012 PF Chang's Marathon) I have ended up with some kind of knee pain that has made me back out.  Well, I'm tempting fate again.  I've decided that I will try, once again, to get my running into good form, and to complete a half Marathon.  Thing is, the half that I'm looking at doing is April 19th....just 7 weeks away!  I increased my total running miles in February and will seek out coaching from Cristin Van Driel.  She works with us at the swim studio and you can check out her website here Ultimate Stamina.  Not sure if I'm excited or scared!  Cristin has been holding running clinics at the studio for a few months now, and while I haven't officially participate, I have been listening.  I've picked up on all of the drills, the technique she teaches, and various other beautiful tidbits.  The one thing that I really needed to work on was keeping that 180 cadence.  I've talked about it before, and I even tried holding it during every one of my 2012 runs, but never had a metronome to keep me honest.  Finally, on 02/22, the Thomas family entered the modern era by finally giving into the smart phone phenomenon.  What that meant was that I could now download a metronome app to help keep my cadence where it should be.  On 02/25, I used it for the first time.  Wow, what I THOUGHT was 180, was more like 165!  I really thought that I was close to 180!  Oh well, call me crazy, but this newly discovered training tool will be with me on every single run until I become proficient!