So I’m currently on my plan that I have called: “oh, shoot! You have only 24 days to prepare for a half that you haven’t ran for let alone trained for What. So. Ever. Just going to try to cross the finish line on just my 2 feet and not crawling on all 4s!”
This weekend I never had a good chance to hit the road running for a long run. So I did it last night. I told my hubby I needed to do a longer run than 5 miles & my goal was to run for at least an hour & a half to help build up my mileage to try to catch up to training plans. Secretly, I was thinking how awesome it would be if I could hit the 10 mile mark but refused to say it out loud because of my fear of failure. The longest I have ever ran is a little over 8 miles last summer.
But, the beauty of your out & back running style is that you have to finish. Especially when you are on a trail run where there are no shortcuts & no one can come pick you up! So I turned around at 5 miles knowing I had to finish that 10 miles.
The first 5 miles went great; I felt great. Then, I hit mile #6 and I am quite certain that each leg weighed at least a hundred pounds each. It was rough BRUTAL. Mile 6 felt like it would never end. Then I hit mile 7 and then “Girl on Fire” came on my iPod & I felt amazing again. I was about to do something I had never done before!
Yes, I had some 15 second walk breaks in there (note to self- next time bring the entire box of Kleenex with you – ugh!!!) & some stupid stop & pick up my water bottle that fell out of my hydration belt for the 50th time moments. I also had some stop & stretch out my calves during the last 3 miles.
But, I continued putting 1 foot in front of the other. Slowly, yes, but I continued on. There were moments I wanted to quit & just shut off my Garmin & walk back to my car. There were moments I wondered if I would be able to do 13.1 miles in 20 days. There were moments where my calves felt like they were seriously ON FIRE! But, I didn’t quit….the word “quit” is not in my vocab. I stopped worrying about how much slower my pace was than what it was a year ago when I did consider myself a “runner” & just did it.
When I was done, I was hurting. In fact, I went home & took my first ice bath – that’s how on fire my calves were. Um….those things are NOT fun! But I felt better & I was afraid this morning that my calves would feel awful – but I feel great! I am still sitting here feeling darn proud that I ran 10 miles. Never in my life, before last year at age 31 thought of ever doing something like this. In my school days, I was an athlete, but running was always something I hated!
One of my fave things about running is that it is the ONLY time this mama gets all by herself! As a full-time working mama who runs around most days with her head cut off, I sometimes forget to enjoy the beauty around me every day. Running on this trail allows me the chance to enjoy it! Especially fall – I can’t wait for those leaves to change even more in color!
That's awesome! I just started a half-marathon training program this morning. I HATE running as well. I will do yoga or kettleball class until the cows come home but every step of every run, the only thing I am thinking about is how soon I can stop. Yet I see other people running halfs and I want so bad to say I did it!