Road to a half marathon

So apparently I'm not an invincible teenager anymore.  It seems all the running I did last summer took a bit of a toll on my body.  In the past I've had shin splints, and for anyone who doesn't know what they are, it basically feels like the muscle running down the front of your shin is literally tearing in half as you take as step. Luckily, shin splints are treatable and with a little ice, rest, Advil and some stretching they go away.  Needless to say as I began running more and more I was very careful to take preventive measures to make sure I didn't get them again.  Well back in late July, 2012 I was running a 5k with a friend of mine, and although we had run in practice together and even done some of the same races, this was the first time her and I actually ran together during a race.  Oh, I forgot to mention that the two of us are VERY competitive, and this particular race was organized through our work, so we had a bunch of friends and coworkers there at the finish line.  Now as we neared the finish line I noticed that we both began to pick up our pace a bit...I don't even know if it was initially a conscious decision, but there was no way in hell I was going to let her finish even one inch ahead of me!  The last tenth of a mile were almost at a full sprint, and by the time I crossed the finish line, ahead of her, we were at a full sprint.  Well I noticed the next day a slight pain in my right shin, but it didn't exactly feel like shin splints, as this was more of minor ache.  Anyway as time went on, and more races were run, this minor ache became more pronounced, still not painful, but definitely more noticeable.  So to play it safe, I started treating it like shin splints, icing, Advil, etc. etc, I even took a bit of time off of training in between races.  So as time went on the discomfort didn't go away and started to move into slightly painful, but it still didn't feel like shin splints, as it didn't bother me when I was running, but it would ache when I was just sitting, not even moving.  Then a coworker suggested it might be a stress fracture, which now started to concern me, as I've got a bunch of runs planned for the upcoming year, so finally in early January 2013 I met with a doctor.  Now the good news, apparently I one of the approximately 13% of the population who has a foot structure that pretty much guarantees me shin splints.  It seems that all the treatment I did only prevented the discomfort from becoming pain.  Basically I was told I couldn't run for 3 weeks and I would need to run with custom shoe inserts to hold my foot into a position that won't completely fuck up my shins.  Not great news, but at least it wasn't a stress fracture  So like any typical male, I blew off the part about not running for three weeks as I already had a 5k scheduled for the following weekend.  And besides if it wasn't a stress fracture, and I've been running on it for the last five months, what's another week?  But after that run I did follow his advice (sort of) and didn't run for about 2 and a half weeks.  Now I've been cleared to start running again, and rewarded myself with a easy jog of 3.1 miles.  While running I thought to myself "damn, I missed this" while at the same time I also thought "why the hell am I doing this?"  Should be an interesting year...stay tuned.