I have decided to run my first race. It'll be a 1/2 marathon in October. My question is this:

If I am training for a marathon, is it okay to run 5 days a week? That means that there won't be a resting day in between all of them. I am, right now anyway, running 2 long runs a week on Monday and Thursday (I'm at 8 & 1/2 miles on each of these now and adding weekly.) On the other 3 days, I run 2 days of 6 miles each and 1 day of 4 miles. Is this okay? Are the short runs kind of a rest considering the long ones will eventually be 13 miles? I want to make sure that I'm capable of running this in a decent time, so I really want to run everyday and have to force myself not to. Thanks for any help.:)

5 days with 2 long runs should be fine as long as you don't start feeling any symptoms of overtraining. You still have 2 recovery days, and 2 less long runs (which you can always shorten if you're burning out). Just really listen to your body and don't wait for a gnawing fatigue to become complete burnout. If you're feeling sore or excessively tired, take an extra day off. It will only help your overall progress in the long run (pun intended) ;) .