Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Running the Race (Literally)

It is Tuesday y’all!!   This coming weekend I will be running my third half marathon! THIRD people! I honestly can’t believe I’m willing running this far and PAYING to run this far.  I ran cross country for one year in high school but I don’t remember ever running further than like 8 miles MAX!

This will be the first half I am participating in where I feel uninjured and really good about the run so close to race day. 

I injured my quad like 10 – 14 days before my very first half in 2010.  I trained for that one with a couple girls and I was pretty pleased with the fact that I ran the whole thing…really slow at some points.  I didn’t get enough sleep or food the night before and it was HOT! I crossed the line at a run and was pleased to have completed it in 2:30.  I had high hopes of finishing under 2… I have learned that I may never be sub 2 hours! And I am surprisingly ok with that.
 


Last year (2012) I ran my second half marathon and PR-ed the race. 
Me with my dad before the race (2012)
Even though I ran a lot better, I was in a good amount of pain.  About 10 days before race day my knee really started to hurt.  I changed my eating habits about a week before, and I just didn’t feel great on race day.  I had trained for MONTHS with my dad who was incredibly ready to race.  He probably should have gone without me but honestly had he done that I might have cried and walked. I know I’m pitiful.  I’m so incredibly competitive so dealing with an injury AGAIN during my second half marathon was devastating.  This particular injury felt like it wasn’t going to be good. I was stressed and I was scared to go to the doctor.  I’m a worst case scenario kind of girl – which tends to drive The Husband crazy!

I finally convinced myself to go to the doctor to have her check me out.  Turns out I needed to start buying real running shoes.  By that I mean I was the kind of girl who would check out the latest sale at Kohl’s and get the lightest shoes that were the prettiest.  Well now I need to go to a running store, get fit for specific shoes based on my gait and probably get inserts.  I did that at the beginning of February 2013 and since then I haven’t had ANY issues.  NONE! I can’t believe what a difference the right shoes make. 

My dad and I started training again in September 2013 for our next half marathon.  I was stressing because I had such a bad race the year before that I didn’t want to run the SAME race again.  So I told him and training kind of fell apart.  We would still run together occasionally but not like we were the year prior when we had a goal. 

There is race we found in Daytona where you run the Daytona Raceway as part of the course.  VERY COOL!
 
So 42 days ago we started training for our second half marathon together.  I think my dad has run a couple half races in the past – I know of at least one.  Then last year we ran one together.  It is excellent Father/Daughter time.  
 
Here we are 6 days before the race and I feel great! Last night was our last long run before the race – only 8 miles.  A few weeks back we went a solid 10 and felt fantastic, I knew I would have been able to push out another 3 miles.  I am very excited because this is the best I have felt in the days leading up to the race!  I’m so amped I want to go running again tonight but I know that is a baaaaaddddd idea! Thankfully I have all sorts of crazy things to do this week and don’t have time for any kind of distance run until Sunday!
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good for you! Excited to hear how it goes. I did my 4th half in September and had a similar no injury training. I won't go into the details of how I injured myself on the run (you can read that on my blog if you want!), but I'm hoping for you that you stay injury free and don't take any spills at mile 9 like I did!

Kristen said...

That's so awesome! I'm training right now for my first half. I decided to give it a go since I've always wanted to do it, and since I was able to run the 15K I did back in November, I figured why not now.

Ryan bought me running shoes just before I ran the 15K and they make ALL the difference. Idk how you did without!