Shin Splints & Preparing for my First Half Marathon

Armed with a desire to have a six-pack and live to be 100 I began to run.  I ran two miles and was quite out of breath, but it felt good to put in hard effort.  The next 4 days my workouts consisted of walk and lift weights.  By  lift weights I mean pick up light weights because I was unwilling to have the rest of my body be as sore as my legs (especially calves) were.
I also changed my diet.  I ate smaller portions and drank a lot more water.  No weight came off for a little over a week, but that was probably due to some swelling of my unprepared muscles.  Swelled and sore muscles hang on to water in order to aide the healing process.
After 5 days I tried running again.  I took it a little slower (not much) and started getting shin splints.  For the next  six weeks I just pushed through the shin splints until I reached a point that I couldn't do it anymore.  I had dropped 8 lbs and wanted to keep going.  My body refused.  Even walking was painful, so I took a few weeks off.  This was near the end of December 2009 and I did not lose any more weight that year.
January arrived and with it came New Years' Resolutions:  "Get a six-pack."
I signed up for the Capitol City Half Marathon in Olympia, WA that would take place in May 2010.  I began running 2-3 miles twice a week, making sure to keep it slow enough that I wouldn't get shin splints.  After a few more months I was down to 213 pounds. *Note- almost all my weight loss to this point was due to exercise, not diet.
As May approached, I set a goal to finish the 13.1 miles in under 2:11:00 because that would be a 6.0 MPH average.  Much of my training was based on a Heart Rate Monitor that I purchased in April.  The basic gist of my training was "stay above 160 BPM."  In retrospect, it really wasn't the best training plan ever created, but it did get me to the starting line.

Deciding to Live to 100

In October of 2009 I weighed 227 pounds.  Not terribly large for a 5 foot 11 inch man, but definitely overweight (obese technically).  I wasn't diagnosed with any particular issues like high blood pressure or diabetes.  I didn't have sleep apnea or knee or back problems.  I wasn't on any medication.   I had no real obvious reason to get healthier... except I'm a nerd.  I obsess over data and I had recently taken an online quiz about how long I would live.  It came out to something like 87 years, which was less than I expected, so I started looking at why.  The biggest reason - "You're too fat."

I guess it was not a surprise, I was more than 50 pounds over what the Body Mass Index (BMI) says is the ideal weight for my gender and height.  I had lost some weight before through some changes in diet and some sporadic exercising, but 50 pounds?!!  Like many people, I justified that I was the exception to the rule.  I have a big frame and a thick neck.  I have a football player's build.  I think most people who are overweight believe they are a lot less overweight than they really are.

In any case, I did accept that I needed to lose some weight and decided that I would lose it all by running.

Why running?

I saw a lot of thin, six-pack weilding runners and decided I should join that crowd.  The internet also told me that running was one of the best ways to stay fit long-term, as well as one of the least expensive.  It was the perfect sport for me.  I resolved to begin running the next day and began dreaming of what I would look like with my perfect six-pack.