This past Saturday I ran my first half marathon. And my last.
I’d been toying with the idea of trying one for a couple years, but I’ve never had the time to dedicate to training for one until now. So a few months ago I signed up and started running.
And running and running and running.
I did almost all of my runs with the girls in the stroller, which I think really helped. It toned my arms, anyway. I didn’t follow any set training program, I just kind of made up my own – 1 long, 1 medium, and 1 short run per week.
People kept asking what my goal time was, and I was like, dudes, I never run this far. I just want to finish the thing. Double digit running isn’t quite my specialty. Or that enjoyable.
I finally got a secret goal time in my head of 1:57, because that was right about 9-minute-mile pace, something I never thought would be possible for me for 13.1 miles. I did my long runs with the full stroller at around a 10-minute-mile pace, so 9 minute miles sounded way faster than what I could do. But that was the number that kept popping into my head anyway.
So Saturday morning I got up with the birds, filled up my Camelbak, put my headphones on, lined up in Corral J, and took off with the herd. The first 8ish miles felt pretty good, and I could honestly tell that I was pushing myself harder than normal.
Then we went down a huge hill and started heading toward the finish area, which I thought would be a good thing, but miles 9 and 10 were miserable. I truly felt that I wasn’t going to make it to the end, then that made me mad because I thought oh great, I wasted all that time training for this and now I’m not even going to finish without walking.
But I never walked, and miles 11 to the end actually felt much better. I just started making myself go as fast as I could, because I knew I’d never be doing this again. I literally had the phrase “I never have to do this again!” running through my head, forcing me to sprint to the end.
So, how did my final time compare to that goal time that I thought was completely unattainable?
1:57:12
Boom.
Nailed it.
And now I never have to run that far ever again. Whew.
my training partners extraordinaire. we’ll keep running together for sure, just not for hours at a time, thankfully.