Running My First Half Marathon

I lost 24 pounds in the year leading up to running my first half marathon. Last year in June I ran my first official 5K ever. Less than a year later I ran my first half marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Since then I’ve become addicted to running. I thought people who ran for fun were nuts. I still do, but now I understand their type of crazy. I’ve learned that if you want to lose weight and get in better shape, you need a reason to do so. The best reason is to schedule a race to incentive more workouts.

Training

People will always ask me how I got started with this. Or how I am able to motivate myself to run for so long.

The best motivation for me is seeking to become better. I make this painfully obvious by scheduling races. On the days where I don’t feel like running, I simply remind myself that I have an upcoming race. I want to improve on my time, and I want to run longer races.

Since I had previously ran a 5K, I had a good benchmark to start with. So at least once a week I would go for a run. My plan was to run a little more each week. 4 miles, then 5 miles, then 7 miles. I ended up running 10 miles a few times before the race, but never more. The first time I ran 13 miles was the day of the race.

The Race

It was a fairly cool day which normally is great for running. But on this day, it also decided to rain right before the race started. This meant that i would be running the race with soggy shoes, socks and clothes. A first for me as I have mostly been a fair weather runner. Life is full of uncertainties.

Despite the adverse weather, I felt great. These races are full of other optimistic people who think running for several miles is a good way to spend a Saturday morning. The energy is palpable. The first few miles I felt great and ran an aggressive pace, even managing to keep up with some of the more experienced runners. I had my running playlist programmed and my pockets were full of Energy Gus and Blocks.

The first 3 miles is the easiest, but after that it starts to become a mental game. You have to remind yourself why you’re out here hitting the pavement over and over again for the next couple hours. And fortunately there are plenty of people offering up support: the volunteers, other runners, even random people who happen to live near the route.

The last 3 miles are the hardest, by far. Everything hurts. Your legs are getting sore. Your feet are getting blisters. You’re tired of running and your fighting a semi coherent mind that wants to simultaneously keep running and keel over and collapse. The last 3 miles are all mental.

But then you get a boost of energy when you see the finish line and somehow you plow ahead. You cross the finish line and feel relief and a great sense of accomplishment that make it all worth it. I spent the next 20 minutes or so standing up against a building soaking in the atmosphere. Eating a couple bananas and bagels. But mostly trying to not cramp up and get my legs back to feeling semi-normal.

Now it’s on to the next race, which is a Spartan Sprint in Asheville, North Carolina.

Big thanks to Terra Running Company for putting on another awesome race!