I finished the half-marathon this morning in 1:31:55, about twenty minutes faster than my goal. This is probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced. In May, I went for my first run in quite some time and had to start walking after about a mile and half. Over the summer I ate as healthy as I could and ran every chance I got. I turned it up even more when I got to school and have been running 4-5 times a week.
Last week I did my longest training run of 11.5 miles at 8:30 minutes/mile pace. Today I ran 13.1 miles at 7 minute pace.
I came in 15th overall out of around 175-200 and second in my age group.
I don’t think I’ve ever set my mind to do something that required this much work in such a short time period, which is why this might sound like bragging but I’m just extremely proud right now.
There’s something inherently thrilling about pushing your body like this. I was feeling fairly nervous yesterday and just kept thinking, “I’m going to go out there tomorrow and do something that I have never done before.” I don’t know how often you can say that.
I plan to run another half in November, and depending on how that goes I might try to tackle a full marathon in the near future. Given the amount of running I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I’ve considered running marathons to raise money for Diabetes research, as my Dad was diagnosed with type II diabetes four years ago. Who knows. I’m on a post-race high. The sky is the limit.
