Some person (I assume a guy) entered this search term and found my humble blog.  Welcome, friend!

The answer is:  Yes, of course you can!

Here’s my bona fides.  I weight about 235 lbs right now.  I’ve completed the half marathon distance 4 times and the full marathon distance 8 times.  I say completed because the running purists might want me to note that I had walking breaks in some of those.  I ran a half marathon, no walking, last year.

Running is a simple and natural activity.  I know some people have health problems that get in the way.  Unless you know you have one of those problems, in my opinion if you want to run, go run.

The key to running is, well, running.  It’s not running fast.  It’s getting out there and doing it.  “Out there” might be running to the end of your driveway today, and down to the park the next week.  It might mean getting on a treadmill at the gym.

13 miles is a long way.  One of the things you will have to do is break down that mental barrier.  You’ll do this by increasing the lengths of your runs.  1 mile may seem insurmountable to start.  After a while, and trust me on this, 1 mile will be a warm up!

You will also need a plan.  There are many of these available for free on the internet.  Hal Higdon’s website is a good place to start. There are training groups you can find to help you. Some are free (such as at running stores), some may have a cost. I used 1st Marathon in training for my first.

I mention them because I want to quote a great story from Coach Brian. He said something like this:

At the start of training, there is always someone who will come forward and say, ‘Coach, I’m going to do my best but I really don’t think I can complete a marathon.’ Then, as we are getting close to the race and starting to cut down on the number of miles we run, that same person will come up to me and say, ‘Coach, I see we are only running 6 miles today. Would it be OK if I ran 10 miles instead?’

I think there is a lot you will learn along the way, but in the end, running is still very simple. Get yourself a good pair of shoes. Your shins will thank you. Go to “real running store” and have them fit you.

All my best to you on your half marathon adventure. You can do it!
Billy