Racing

After the race results from my very first 5k were posted online I had a goal. I wanted to run faster and maybe farther! Growing up in FL, I had volunteered many times at the Walt Disney Marathon and I knew I was going to be home for Christmas so I set my goal to be the Walt Disney half marathon. I convinced my mother and aunt to run it with me and I started my training.

I found a training plan online and instantly decided that I couldn't deviate from the plan or I'd be a total failure on half marathon weekend. But some times it was hard to get my butt to the gym. Enter racing! My training plan had me running a race every 3 weeks or so, races that got progressively longer. Every race was exciting and I yearned to master the art of racing, pacing myself in the beginning so I wouldn't tire out halfway through but pushing hard enough throughout the race to get a good time and not end wishing I had run harder.

In the end, it's the race that keeps me running. Always striving to be better than before, go farther than the last race, be faster than a month ago. I've found that if I don't have a race that I'm training for it is very difficult for me to get out and train.

Which brings us to today. I've run the half marathon and since then I've run a few shorter races trying to work on my speed but I'm striving for more. And that is why I'm setting a goal for myself to run the big race before I turn 27. 26(.2) miles while I'm 26 seems fitting. My eyes are set on the Space Coast Marathon. I ran the Space Coast half last year, it was my first half marathon, so it seems fitting that I return there for the big day. I know at the beginning of this post I said that my goal was the Disney Half Marathon, and I did run that (sort of...getting food poisoning the week before a half marathon doesn't leave much energy for running!). But it was good that I ran the other race, because now I can say I've run a half marathon and not just walked one!

The truth is that I got nervous about running a half marathon so I planned a backup, it was meant more for a "training" half marathon to see what it felt like to run that far in a race. It was Thanksgiving weekend so I would already be home and they offered pace runners so I thought it would be a great opportunity to start and finish a race at the same pace and learn what that felt like. But it was such a beautiful run that I really wanted to go back this year but I wanted more of a challenge. So I've enlisted my family to run with me (they will all be running the half and cheering me on at the end!) and that's the family Thanksgiving goal. We're going to be in great shape for the holidays!

So this begins my training for the big day...well tomorrow...today was a rest day :-P but I did run 9.5 miles yesterday and biked 10 because I was that excited!