First half marathon at 55 - am I nuts?

[HootDad]

Hi all,

I am a longtime DIS member though I have not been posting much lately. I was listening to one of the Disneyland podcasts where Tony talked about doing the Tinkerbell half marathon. He said something that you hear a lot from folks who succeed at a challenge like that - "If I can do it anyone can!" Well, that got me thinking and I turned it around a bit to "If anyone can do it then I can!" Then on a later podcast I heard this forum mentioned and I figured I'd post my intentions and get feedback if you will indulge me.

Anyway, I am challenging myself to run the 2013 WDW half marathon. I am 54 years old now and will be 55 by the time of the marathon. And I have never run a marathon before - nor any distance close to that. I am in generally good health and work out regularly. The thing is, in addition to my age, I was involved in a project late last year (I directed a production of the musical HAIRSPRAY) that took all my focus an energy so I got out of what had been a regular exercise routine for about ten years. This resulted in my gaining about 15 pounds on top of the 15 or so I already needed to lose.

So, in a nutshell, I'm 54, need to lose about 30 pounds and I have never run any real distances. To tell you where I am now, I get up every morning and work out for about 75 minutes including a walk/jog of about 2 miles. I have started trying to push myself on weekends - last weekend I jogged 2 miles both days (although calling what I do "jogging" is a stretch of the term) and walked another mile and this weekend I intend to stretch that out to 2 1/2, maybe 3 mile jog with a mile walk.

So... am I nuts to think I might be able to do this? I will need to push myself obviously but I don't want to injure myself. I'm being real careful - stretching and all that - but have I given myself to high a goal?

Thanks!