Introduction - Hi All!!

Good morning fellow runners!<br><br>
I've known about this site for a little while now, and decided last night during my 7 mile run that I should finally introduce myself here...especially since so many of you will be at Philly, which will be my first Marathon.<br><br>
A quick intro: My name is Don & I live in Connecticut (in case you couldn't tell <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Very Happy">) and am a 32yo Stay At Home dad to my 2 kids (a 3.5 yr old son and 9mo old daughter). I reached my all time high in weight of 274lbs (I'm 6' 3"<img alt="wink.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/wink.gif"> last spring, and decided that enough was enough.<br><br>
I had dabbled in running before, but got frustrated when I petered out after a mile or so, but I wanted to get into it 'for real'. I signed up for the BAA Half Marathon, which gave me 7 months to train.<br><br>
I fell in love with running as soon as I learned to slow down and was able to go 'longer' distances. I used HH's beginner program and doubled it up so I trained for 24 weeks. I ran the HM @ 242lbs and finished at 2:14:40, which was ahead of my goal time of 2:30.<br><br>
Since then I have completed 2 more HMs (Nutmeg State in April and Boston's Run to Remember in May) and have 2 more on my plate: The BAA Half again and Hartford Half (plus an additional 5 miles) the following weekend to use as training runs for the Philadelphia Marathon.<br><br>
Ok, so maybe it wasn't so much of a quick intro as it was my running history. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/cool.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Cool"><br><br>
I'm using HH's Novice program as a) I didn't have a very big base when starting the training (15mpw) and b) I don't have any goals other than finishing. Other than missing one of the shorter runs each week, I haven't found any problems with the program and am really looking forward to running my first marathon.<br>
Oh, and as far as weight goes, I checked in at 219 earlier this week. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/hello2.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="hello1">. It's still 4.5lbs over my all time low from about a month ago, but I'm still working off some vacation gains!<br><br>
Thanks for letting me type all that out for you and I look forward to being an active member of this community here! Which I found, btw, from Liam's posting about the Philly Marathon over at Coolrunning.<br><br>
Cheers! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/occasion14.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="occasion5">