This past
Sunday I ran my second half marathon and had a blast. As the race got closer and closer people
would always ask if I was ready for it and to be honest I had to say this was
the Least prepared I’ve felt for a race.
I hadn’t built up my weekly mileage as I should have, I was pretty lax
in following my training plan, I hadn’t run in over a year, had a baby, the
altitude was still a factor in affecting my pace and at times felt I had hit a
wall or boredom with the day to day runs.
And of course the week of the race my foot started hurting whenever I
walked and it sounded like tendonitis, awesome.
I actually preferred
my long runs over the short weekly mileage because I would pick out a new trail
every time and go run it. The new trail, scenery, the exploration of a new place
really made the run enjoyable and the miles fly by.
Usually my
runs are my quiet time with the Lord, I can clear my head, work through things
and just enjoy a great workout; but lately they’ve just been runs. No grand conversations with the Lord, no
great breakthroughs, no revelations or insight. Just runs. And hard ones at
that. I didn’t feel like I was making
progress, instead of feeling like I was building on the last run, every run was
just work. Some days I couldn’t seem to catch my breath the whole time. I
wasn’t finding the joy in my run like I used to. This was Hard! And that was frustrating. But I had signed
up, made a commitment and would follow through, no matter how slow or ugly it
was. I have a little person who will
always be watching me… How do I react when things are hard? Do I quit? Do I
give up? Or do I persevere? Stick to my commitment? I can’t expect her to do any differently than
I myself can example. It should be Do as
I DO….
So I pushed
along and finished my last long run feeling good going into the race, until the
foot pain of course. It seemed to get
worse and everything I read and heard was rest, rest, rest. So I opted not to
run at all the week before the race and pray that that would be enough rest and
my foot would hold out through the whole 13.1 miles.
We drove up
to Denver the day before, went to the Expo, got all settled in and I was oddly
calm. Excited, but not nervous like my first half. Even as we were lining up, waiting for my
coral to be released there wasn’t that anxiousness and ‘Ohmygosh I have to pee
Again!’, but a calm and excitedness, I was really looking forward to this! I love the buzz in the air, thousands of
other people who are up at 5 am as well because they love to run! For one older lady in my coral, this was her
65th half marathon! Mad props….
My coral was
released and I was off, trying not to go out too fast and trying to get a feel
for my foot. It hurt on and off the
whole run but was very manageable. We
ran through the Denver Zoo, through some beautiful (and some not so much)
neighborhoods and through the Aurora Fire Station. I didn’t turn on my IPod until the last 2
miles. I took in everything on the run, the funny signs—my favorite: “I didn’t
get up this early to watch you Walk!”, the people sitting in their front yards
eating a bowl of cereal and coffee, the animals in the zoo, the view of the
mountains in the distance, all the different people around me. It was awesome.
The last 3
miles I was all out going for it, I didn’t want to finish and feel like I could
keep running. I was booking and it was
so much fun! I saw my family waving about a mile before the finish line and
that gave me an extra boost, they always make me smile. Of course the last mile lasted at least 2,
felt like forever but as I saw the finish line in view I, as I always do,
picked as many people that were in front of me to pass before crossing the
finish line. I was flying! I love
pushing myself and my body, pushing the boundaries in my head, pushing my body
when it thinks it’s done and surprising myself.
I finished a
minute and a half slower than my first half 2 years ago, So close! Stupid
bathroom break… But with all the factors going against me…. Altitude, poor
training, not having run for over a year, had a baby, bum foot; I proved I
could still press through. Yes, running
is just that, running, but it’s something I love. I find more of myself in each run, especially
the crappy ones. My true character comes
out, the real attitude, the real me—good, bad, and ugly.
Training for
my first half went very smoothly and I found a great sense of accomplishment in
finishing. Training for this one was Way
harder, a lot more to overcome, but this time in the end I found a great sense
of joy, again. I’m already signing up for my next half in July!
So what do
you love? What is your passion? Go after it! As Pastor Brock always says, Live
Your Love! Don’t let the day to day or overwhelming obstacles keep you from it.
There will always be a reason you think shouldn’t or can’t, but when the guy
pushing his disabled adult son in a full length wheelchair passed me, I knew I had
no good reason why I couldn’t do what I love.
So I keep running….
No comments:
Post a Comment