I feel like I owe a lot of this accomplishment to my awesome friends for convincing me I was capable of actually doing these things! Also, of course, to Jon who always believes in me. It took awhile to get myself to a place where I could believe in myself enough to go for it!
It started back in the winter when my friend Christina brought up the idea of running some kind of relay race this year. Jessica suggested the Market-to-Market because she'd done it before and enjoyed it. We all kind of half-heartedly committed and Christina started putting the team together! Once we actually paid for a team and signed up we realized we better get our butts in gear and start training for this. Or at least that was my experience. I tried to start adding in additional workouts when I could and pushing myself a little further each time so I could be ready to run multiple legs of this relay race!
The day of the race came and we all had to wake up super early to meet and the church and drive to where the race began. It was cold and dark and SO EARLY! The race started in the pitch black but by time the second runner was finishing their leg the sun was coming up. I ran two legs during the day- a 6 mile and a 5 mile (approximately). It really made me push myself both mentally and physically but it was so good! It was exhausting but fun and inspiring and great to be with these ladies all day- driving around, grabbing snacks where we could, and cheering each other on. What a great experience.
It was that relay that convinced me that maybe I actually could push myself to try a half-marathon. I'd honestly never had the confidence to think that could ever be in the cards for me but riding the high from the relay I went ahead and signed myself up for one 3 weeks later. I figured I might as well just keep my momentum from my relay training going and put it into the half-marathon training rather than waiting too long in between races.
I spent lots of time running outside, pushing myself further each time, leading up to the race. Pre-race day the furthest I'd gotten was 10 miles straight but I was hoping that would be enough. The Hometown Half Marathon was at Big Creek Lake which was perfect for me. I just wanted something low-key that wasn't going to cause stress figuring out how to get there or where to park. There wasn't really all that many people compared to a lot of races but it was perfect for what I was looking for. My only goal was to be able to run the whole time and not stop.
The race was a lot more hilly than I'd pictured so that was a little intimidating at first but I just kept going and pushing myself. In the end, I managed to meet my goal and actually make pretty decent time (for me) as well! Again, there were only like 15 in the category but I got 2nd place for women in the 35-40 age bracket so that was kind of cool!
The only slightly annoying thing was that as I was running the distance on my watch kept coming up a little short at the mile markers and I kept thinking, I'm not sure this is going to end up being 13.1! As I was coming into the finish line- sure enough- I was coming in a little short and I was like, "I didn't run all this way to stop before my watch tells me it's 13.1 and I get a "half-marathon badge"! Haha, I probably shouldn't care so much about watch fitness badges but when I came through the finish line I just kept going and ran around the parking lot until my watch hit 13.1! I'm sure all the race people were wondering what the heck I was doing. Jon and the kids had come to cheer me at the finish line too so I had to tell them as I ran by that I would be right back. For a few minutes I think they thought I was crazy too. Maybe I am.
So glad I did it though! Bucket list item checked off! I don't know if I'll do a half marathon again- maybe, we'll see- but I will definitely do the relay again! We are already talking about our plans for next year and I'm super excited!
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment