A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about “Why You Should Sign Up for a Half Marathon”. I provided eight reasons why you should get off the couch and out the door. Today, I want to take that challenge to the next level.

Let’s be honest. You ate too much high octane food during the holidays. The weather outside was bitter cold, so you ditched your exercise program. You haven’t darkened the door of the gym since the week after Thanksgiving. And the scale doesn’t lie: you’ve gained a few pounds.

This is the conversation I had with myself in the mirror on New Year’s day.

After I finished reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, I bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers shoes. I have been running in them now for five weeks. I am loving them. The only negative is that I am continuously having to explain them to curious strangers. In fact, three people stopped me today in the space of three miles.

About three weeks ago, 135 of our employees completed the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee. (Our Dallas-based employees completed the Big-D Dallas Half Marathon a month earlier.) While it was fresh in their minds, I wanted to capture their thoughts.

So Lindsey Nobles, my Director of Corporate Communications, produced this simple 6-minute video with the help of David Woodard at Literary Video. In it, our Nashville employees talk about their experience. I can’t wait until next year.

In late December of 2007, I issued the 2008 Half Marathon Challenge. An amazing 135 of our employees participated in the event and participated. It was my second half marathon, and I enjoyed it even more than last year.

Last week, Lindsey Nobles, my Director of Corporate Communications, invited everyone who finished to write about their experience. Like last year, we were overwhelmed. It seemed that the majority of runners wanted to share their experience. As a result, I have included them below in full. (They are listed alphabetically by last name.) I found them truly inspiring.

On January 4th, I set a goal of enrolling 158 of our employees in one of two half marathon races this spring. This represents roughly 25% of our workforce.

I knew this was a big goal and, frankly, it was a little daunting. However, I am happy to report that we now have 160 employees registered. In addition, we have 32 spouses, and 14 authors or agents registered for a total of 206 people. Wow.

Three weeks ago, I got out of bed and noticed that my right heel was really sore. That’s strange, I thought. I wonder if I stepped on a stone. Over the next few days, I kept running and noticed that it was getting progressively worse. Then it dawned on me. Could this be the dreaded Plantar Fasciitis?

A little over a month ago, I issued the The 2008 Half Marathon Challenge. I invited our employees, spouses, authors and agents to run either the The Big-D Texas Marathon & Half Marathon in Dallas on April 6 or The Country Music Marathon & Half Marathon in Nashville on April 26. So far, we have 102 employees signed up. My goal is 158.

Admittedly, I am a novice runner. I’ve been running just a little over a year. So what could I possibly have to say about training for a half marathon? A couple of things.