First half marathon of the year! It was not pretty, the picture below makes me laugh because the expression on my face says it all. I am wiped out! Having a race at the beginning of the year was hard to train for, especially since I HATE the treadmill. So any run over 3 miles had to be done outside, any run done on the treadmill had bad times and was excruciatingly boring.
I signed up for this run back in October while I was still on the runners high from the City of Trees. But I'm glad I did it. It gave me motivation to run when all I really wanted to to was curl up inside under a blanket. But I was still very unprepared.
I promised myself I will never go into another race feeling like that. I hadn't run over 9 miles in months. I seriously considered switching to a 10k instead of the half but that was the easy way out and just not an option.
I laced up my shoes and drank my pre-work out and headed to the race.
The start of the race was great and as I ran I was keeping my
times in the low 9 minute a mile area. I felt good and around mile 7 I started
thinking. Yes I can do this. I have this in the bag. Until I hit wall around
mile 9. Cardiovascular wise I was feeling great. My breathing wasn't
labored and I had kept a good rhythm thus far. But my feet were starting to
hurt, my knees were feeling achy and I couldn't feel my toes. But I told
myself I had to keep moving... Stopping wasn't an option. Pressing forward I
kept thinking that this really is what life is like. We pass people, people
pass us. We are all going at our own speed. We run with some people and then
they either pull ahead or fall back. And most of all we are the only ones that
can run our race. There is no cheating and no one else can do it for you. You
are the one that earns your time. You have either put in the training or not.
In this case I had not and was feeling the effects. Mentally I had to keep
reminding myself that failure was not an option and that this could last as
long as I wanted. I just had to run. The slower I went the longer it would
take. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a new P.R., Only by a small
amount but still 2 minutes is 2 minutes. And the fact that I had to slow to a
quick pace walk 3 times made me realize that I am capable of more, and I
wouldn't slack on my next race. I decided in that moment I would train harder.
There is never and excuse to let the day pass away and not train.
Time was 2 hours 7 minutes, I look lots happier here, it was the beginning of the race.
I haven't posted on this for a while, and I haven't really thought about it much till recently- Though I don't mind a run in the rain it does shorten my training time. When the kid is gone I have time to hang at home and watch old movies. Thanks to netflixs its easy to find my old faves I haven't seen for a while.
It seems like there are lots of movies and TV shows where cheating is the movie- He cheated so she did- you fill in the blank or She cheated so he- you fill in the blank. The shocking thing is how many movies have it in the movie and it's just an after thought. Romantic comedy movies...The wedding planner, boy rescues girl, they have an outing. the bride goes away on business and the evidently fall for each other while planning his wedding. Notting Hill, A movie star has a fling with a shop owner, they have a date and she invites him up and low and behold her boyfriend is there surprise! The rest of the movie is about him pining over her. Sure she reappears just long enough to have a one night stand. Sabrina (the one with Harrison Ford) this one is a little more complicated, ultimatly she loves the little brother who is engaged, but to seal a big business deal the older brother distracts her from him, and then falls for her so her turns around and encourages the little brother to leave his fiance to run away with Sabrina.
Okay so yes I watch corny movies- noted. My point is we are bombarded with low morals and standards. Often we are attacked, face on and we react and deal with it. But it seems like it slips in under the doors and creeps in through the window wells. More than ever we need to know who we are- we need to know our worth- We need to know our standards- We need to stick to them. It's not always the easy thing to do, even as an adult. There are outside pressures and a need to please. But I find that I am happiest when I am doing what I know to be right and good.
