South Arlington Half Marathon

It's amazing what your mind and body can do when given enough time to be trained and adjusted.

Last December I entered my first half marathon. It was an awesome experience but I felt completely exhausted afterwards. I had followed a 14-week training plan that, at most, had me run 11 miles for my longest run.

During my HM, about two-thirds through, I had injured my foot. It was sore and a bit swollen afterwards. I had to take about a month off to let it heal and by then, the thought of running was the furthest thing from my mind. I enjoyed not running for awhile, not having to follow a strict regimen of specific mileage on specific days and running routes that were just brutal (mainly because of the horrible scenery). It was hard to get motivated into running when I wasn't training for anything.

Months and months later, I'm running again, but it's different. Everything feels different now. First, I'm following a full marathon training schedule and it may be a marathon that I may not actually get to run. That uncertainty isn't really a factor. I'm not even looking forward to running the event. I mean, if I do get the opportunity to run it, I will, but it's not my main motivation for running right now.

Last week as part of marathon training schedule, I was to run 13 miles. Basically a half marathon distance. Leading up to that day of training the number itself seemed daunting. A half marathon distance? I recalled how awful I felt running that HM. I was afraid what was going to happen. Was I going to injure myself again?

So the day came. Leading up to that day I had run some miles in progressively faster times. I was really amazing myself with the pace I was running and I was afraid of starting out too quick on my long run day and petering out too fast. It was 6 am on a damp Sunday morning. The temperature was 12 Celsius - nice running weather. I had planned my route and it was pretty straightforward for me to remember.

And off I went. The first 5 miles were difficult. I wasn't sure why, but they just were. I had planned to take walking breaks at miles 5, 9, and 12...basically breaks at 5 miles, 4 miles and 3 miles. I wasn't sure what to expect from the weather and how my body was going to react to the cool weather and the higher mileage. During the first 5 miles I had caught myself trying to go too fast and purposely kept slowing myself down. I think that was what made it so difficult because my legs wanted to go faster but my brain kept telling me to slow down. Also for the first time, as I hit mile 5 for my first break, I found myself actually hungry. I had never been hungry before while running and it was odd. Good think I packed those gels because I scarfed it down and I've never been a fan of strawberry-banana flavoured gels!

After the break, I got back on pace. I have the hardest time getting back on pace after a break. It's like my body doesn't want to go back to running or wants to take another break soon after. But everything was feeling really good. So good that when mile 9 came I had plenty left in the tank and decided to delay my break until mile 10. When mile 10 hit, I got hungry AGAIN! I scarfed down another gel but I was still hungry! I had also brought some sport beans along and I downed the entire pack without breaking pace!

I pretty much cruised the next 3.1 miles (hey if you're going to run 13 miles, you might as well run the extra 0.1 miles and make it a true HM distance, right?), and just missed finishing 13.1 under a 10:00 min/mile pace by 5 seconds per mile.

The odd thing was that I felt better after this training run than I did after my HM event. Obviously the build-up of miles had a lot to do with it, but not being pressured or feeling pressure and having a different mindset during my training run also had something to do with it. Yeah, the leg muscles feel sore, but this run was more enjoyable afterwards than my HM. As much as I had a sense of accomplishment running my HM, I felt more accomplished being able to run the same distance as a training run...I definitely got more enjoyment out of it, which is odd for someone who dreads the long runs.

In the past month I actually felt like a runner, rather than someone who is trying to be a runner. My pace has been getting faster, my distance have been getting longer. Something in my body has flipped a switch. I know that the weather has been getting cooler which definitely has helped in my endurance and speed, but I'm amazed at how my body has reacted to the mileage. I was expecting it to revolt and remind me that I'm not a runner...but right now it's telling me, I'm with you all the way.