I have never been an athlete. I was on a soccer team as a kindergardener, and that's about it. However, in college one semester, I met a friend who was a runner, and convinced me to give it a try. For me at least, as soon as I started running, I wanted to race. I'm super slow, so it's not about winning, it's about the excitement of running with other people when you have a cheering audience watching. It's exciting and fun! I started with a 5k in graduate school, and then started signing up for longer and longer races. First 5ks, then 10ks, then my first half marathon. After the half, it was clear I needed to run a full.
I knew I would be really slow, so I just wanted to run to finish. For me, it was all about the sense of accomplishment, knowing that I had done something so difficult that few people have done it. So last year, to celebrate my last year being single and turning 30- I signed up for the marine corps marathon. This is a huge marathon that attracts thousands of runners, which is perfect, because it means there are lots and lots of people there to cheer the runners on, and bands all along the way.
I didn't train very well, often skipping midweek short runs and some of the miles for my long runs. I also didn't adequately strength train, which is considered the cause of runner's knee and other knee injuries.
A quick recap of last year:
I started out happy but nervous. I knew I hadn't trained well enough and was worried I wouldn't finish.
Around mile 15, I really hit a wall. I had serious knee pain, which made it just excruciating to walk, and running was worse. Plus- it was the empty part of the course, where there was no one to cheer- which is just awful. This is what I looked like, which I think generally conveys the pathetic-ness that was me. This is me trying to decide if I can just quit and take the metro home.
I didn't think I would make it, until I found Matthew and Kim. Then I found R, who ran with me for a while, until I ran into Molly, who ran with me for a couple more miles. I began to think I could make it, and I started to look like this.
Then - after running with Matthew for a while, and with R by my side for nearly 10 miles- I finally made it to the finish, where I looked like this and felt like I'd been run over by a truck.
Then I got a beer and a burger and I quickly forgot everything, and looked like this and felt amazing.
Even though I only raced to finish, when I hit the finish line, I was filled with pride that I'd done it- and also a sense of disappointment that I was so slow. Inevitably, after a few months of sitting around, I decided I wanted to run it again to see if I could improve my time.
The Plan:
My goal is to run again this fall, and complete the race in 4.5 hours. I've been running a bit for the last month or so, but now is time to get serious. From now on, I will run 3 times a week, including one long run on Sundays. The mileage will slowly increase for my long runs, until I reach a max of 20 miles. To avoid knee pain, I'm also going to do one weight lifting session and one yoga class every week to keep my muscles strong and stretched. Since it's exactly 1 million degrees outside now, none of this sounds great. But I'm excited to get started!
Here we go again!
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