“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

You don't want to hear this, but it's too soon for a half marathon. You've only been running 4 months and aren't past 6 miles yet, and there's nothing wrong with that at all! You're trying to push yourself too much for a race that you're not ready for, and you're suffering the consequences, which could and probably will result in injury. It takes TIME and patience to build endurance! Your body is telling you it's not ready. It's OK to walk part of the race if you're really set on participating. I've been running 2 1/2 years and trained carefully for my first half marathon last month, with no problems achieving the 10- and 12-mile training runs. Still, during the race I found myself talking to a friend and not paying attention to my form, and guess what - at about mile 10 I realized my sore leg was actually injured and not just tired and sore. My first-ever running injury. Luckily it isn't serious but it's prevented me from running the last 3 weeks.

Speaking of form, lots of new runners need time and attention to achieve a more efficient, less tiring running form. Personally I follow the ChiRunning approach (www.chirunning.com... although as I said, I didn't follow it well enough during my half!)  I suffered from severe shin pain when I was a brand-new runner, and this helped me tremendously. A couple things come to mind. Be very careful to keep your lower legs relaxed; don't push with your feet and toes. And don't land with your foot landing out in front of you; take short, quick steps so you land "midfoot," with your foot just under you. (Midfoot means just softly landing on the sole of your foot, letting your arch be the natural shock absorber that it was designed to be, rather than having your heel take the impact or  landing on the ball of your foot with your calf muscle taut... that's very tiring.) Relaxation of your legs, especially lower legs, is key; it takes quite a while for your calves and shins to get used to this and to build up strength, so minimize the abuse by keeping all of your leg muscles as "lazy" as possible while running.

A couple points that I would raise:

1) I actually disagree with the reader who says you're not ready to do your first half yet. If you're consistently able to run 5 miles without stopping, you're likely ready to get involved in a half marathon training plan. I started running in June, and ran a half in September and a full in November of that same year. I had a couple guys that pretty much followed the same story, so it can be done, and can be done healthily (is that a word?) if you follow a good program that doesn't increase weekly mileage more than 10% per week.

2) I know you said you 'broke in' your shoes, but are they the right shoes? Were you fitted for them in a quality running shoe store? Hopefully you've begun doing your research, and educating yourself on the ART of running, because as we've all learned, there's a lot to it. Virtually everything you read says that at the first signs of joint soreness, you need to examine your shoes as the most likely culprit. You raising issues about your ankles in addition to the shin splnts would be a red flag that your shoes may not be best suited to your gait - especially as fatigue sets in and your pronation tends to get exacerbated, which could lead to both of the problems you describe.

3) SLOW DOWN! I, too, was a middle distance runner in H.S. and gauged my pacing off of that. I was crazy! Because I could run a sub-5 mile when I was 17 (20 years ago) I figured a 7:30 pace was a reasonable goal for my first marathon. Ha! Real life, experience, and some tough self honesty produced something around a 9 minute pace, which I've come to embrace. Remember that for your first races, unless your Kenyan, your likely a completer and not a competer (I use this as my mantra to keep running FUN, which is why we do it anyway, right?). Once you beat the distance the first time, you can start trying to beat your last time. If you go out guns blazin', you will almost certainly end up shuffling (or crawling) the last few miles, miserable and defeated. It may even ruin your desire to run again and that would be tragic. If it means anything to you, one of the guys I mentioned earlier ran a 7:30 pace in our half, and I beat him with my 9:00 pace because he was walking by mile 9. I jogged by him with a friendly 'hello' and a smile as big as Texas...

Happy Running!

I don't think it's too soon for a half marathon either. I managed a 2:15 time in my first HM with only two and a half months of training after an exercise-free 17 years on the couch. Did it hurt? Heck yeah.   Was I proud of doing it? HECK YEAH!!!!! And yes, it gets waaaaay easier as your body adjusts to running over time (quite a surprisingly long time in all honesty). But only you know the difference between feeling sore and being injured and as long as you're sensible and back off/take a break if it's the latter I think you'll be ok.

You've got seven weeks. If you only add one mile a week to your long run you'll be up to 10 miles in four weeks. Do that distance for a couple of weeks and run very little in the last week and I think you'll be fine. Race day adrenalin and spirit will do the last three miles for you

A few things have really helped me...

1) Learning to incorporate rest days - might be obvious in hindsight that your body needs time to recover between runs but at first I thought I wasn't going to get any better unless I was out every morning pounding the pavement. Started to run less often (4 times a week) and suddenly I was running longer and stronger...

2) Perhaps use a treadmill for some of the time? I had big problems with sore knees for the first three months I ran (all outside). When winter came I switched to using a treadmill and the pain gradually went away. It hasn't come back since I've switched back to outdoor running and that's with about 30 miles a week now. My thoughts are that the TM allowed my legs to recover because it reduced the impact stress whilst also building up muscle strength. Whatever it was, it worked great...

3) Slow down. You can't run too slowly. Aim to finish whatever distance you set yourself, forget the watch... speed will come.

4) Aim to get some protein into yourself as soon as you finish a long run. I'm no nutrition expert but this was one tip that really worked for me. Good excuse for nice milk shakes...

Good luck!!