My Half-Marathon Decision

I was talking on the phone with my good friend Lauren the other night and she made the comment to me about how she remembered me once saying that I would never do a half marathon, that I had no desire to do anything past a 5K.

The moment I realized that I could complete a half marathon, and actually wanted to try, was this past March.  My boyfriend was running in the annual Knoxville marathon and I was also running that same day in the 5K.  Being that it takes like a 1/6th of the time for me to finish the 5K compared to his marathon, I had some time to do some sitting, reflecting, and watching.  Maybe it was the fact that I had just completed my fastest 5K, or maybe it was the rush of adrenaline combined with the Starbucks coffee I picked up after the race, but as I sat in Neyland Stadium waiting for him to cross the finish line, I found myself drawn to the people finishing the other races.  I watched people of all shapes, sizes, and ages complete the half marathon and they looked so excited, so proud of themselves.  And as I sat there watching them and reflecting on all of the things that I have accomplished, I knew that completing a half marathon was something that wasn't completely out of my league like I had always thought.  I had always envisioned people that ran half and full marathons as your typical runner - tall, lean, thin.  But some of these people crossing the finish line didn't look like that.  They looked like me.  Some older, some shorter, some heavier, some thinner.  I think that's what I appreciate about running.  It doesn't have anything to do with other people.  It's all about you.  It's all about finishing something that once seemed so impossible.

Wearing glasses becomes a safety hazard when running in the rain!

Trust me, completing this half marathon still seems so far away.  Even though it's not until February, I've already started training.  I wanted to give myself plenty of time and allow some additional weeks as padding in case life got crazy (such as UT recruitment week!) and threw me off my training schedule.  I've completed two weeks, and so far it's going as well as can be expected.  For my long runs, I'm using the run/walk method.  For anyone that's interested, Disney has free training plans describing the run/walk method by Jeff Galloway here.  It was definitely different.  I find myself going a much faster pace than normal during the running intervals, so by the 2 mile mark I start to get pretty tired.  Learning to pace myself with the intervals will be something I need to focus on during this training.  And how you people that run 9 minute miles for long distances do it, I'll never know.  But it was pretty fun to look down and see that I was going that fast, even if it was just for 2 minutes.

I'm looking forward to the next couple weeks as I increase my mileage.  I've previously done an 8K (which is 5 miles), but that's the furthest I've gone.  I've signed up for a 10K (6.2 miles) in Nashville on Halloween and that will be a good halfway point to make sure that I'm where I should be in terms of training for 13.1 miles.

Thank you so much to those that have already donated to my fundraiser and are supporting me with this race.  I'm so amazed at how quickly people jumped on board.  People I haven't spoken to in years have been contacting me and donating to the cause.  I appreciate it all.  I hope to meet half of my goal by October, so don't stop contributing, as every little bit helps!  Jennifer's on the Run Fundraiser

Happy Running!