Greg prepared me well for my race! The Maine Half Marathon went really well. I had a great time running and put down consistent splits and ended with a strong finish. I’m so pleased with us both; with him for being generous with his time and experience and coming up with tailored workouts for me, and with myself for doing my best to complete them consistently.
I went from not running much at all in 2017 (the year of the Equinox class reviews!) to ramping up really aggressively this summer to train for this race, and was able to pull off my 3rd best half marathon time out of 9 total.
Even struggling with some return of plantar fascia issues I was able to knock out a great race. (The Strassburg sock has been working wonders.)
Some race highlights:
Greg being so excited for me to run. He got the kids up and out the door on time, saw me multiple points on the course, bought me a pair of fancy racing shoes for the big day, took tons of photos, and packed up everything from the weekend and while I recovered and showered, and got us into the car on time to get to the kids’ soccer.
Seeing the kids on the course for high fives.
Having the most delicious comfort food afterward from the Totally Awesome Vegan Food Truck.
My brother and his wife cheering me on at mile 8 (where she was waiting for her marathon relay leg to start) and then my brother packing up all three of his kids and making it down to cheer me into the finish and hang out over french fries.
My in-laws there snapping photos, cheering me on, and helping with all five kids. They come to all my big races and I love that they make the effort to be there cheering even when Greg isn’t running or TRI-ing.
Seeing my boys have extra cousin time.
Hearing my niece say “Good job Aunty Kelly” with seemingly no adult prompting whatsoever.
The views on the course and perfect running weather.
Hearing my name announced as I ran into the finish chute.
Greg strategizing in the car about when I should start training for Lowell.
Overall, a great race, and I’m excited to feel like a half-marathon runner again! In the two years of not training for running races, I had missed feeling like running long was part of who I was. It’s great to be back.
I’m sure I’ll regale you with more running adventures as I move forward on my running journey, but they’ll continue to be sparse as I devote time to the two-year novel writing program I started last week. Maybe one of my characters should be a runner?
We’ll see. I’m a bit terrified and excited. What was it I wrote Saturday? Oh, yeah. “Hope is a four letter word.” Anyone starting a novel has a great deal of hope (and maybe some other four letter words as the writing process progresses).
But like any journey, as daunting as it feels right now, I know that if I put one step in front of the other I’ll eventually end up further from where I started.
And my personal favorite:
Great job Kelly! Glad to see you are accomplishing all these amazing goals you are setting for yourself! The race looked like a lot of fun!
I’m glad you’re back to long-running too. Congrats on a great race!
Thanks so much Mair!