Crossed “finish half marathon I hadn’t properly trained for” off my running bucket list.
I think I’m proud of myself? I’m not sure whether it’s more admirable to know when you shouldn’t start, or to be willing to walk or crawl across the finish if you have to because darn it, you said you were going to do this.
I’d signed up for it long before I got a number in the Tri For a Cure Lottery (have you donated to my fundraising page?) and when I got a number for my first triathlon in July, those long runs took a back seat. Like WAY back.
But while I’ve been running, oh, say a fourth of the amount suggested for half marathon training, I’ve at least been training for the tri about 5 days a week for the past 3 months.
I was curious to see if that’d get me across the finish line.
It did.
Not quickly, though.
I had some major chest cramps that wouldn’t quit starting at mile 7… and that’s pretty early in the race to commence with a walk/jog strategy.
So it was slow. It was painful. I did a lot of walking from mile 10-13. But I made it, and I didn’t get injured, and WOW am I impressed with that year that I trained hard all summer and ran the 10:01 pace half marathon in the Fall of 2014.
Way to go Kelly of 2014. YOU WERE A ROCK STAR. I can’t even IMAGINE being able to do that after this last race.
It’s actually awesome to achieve something and then lose it. It keeps me from taking my status as a runner for granted. Being a half marathon runner is something you have to continue to earn with consistency. You can’t just have achieved it once and still be able to do it.
This most recent half was my slowest finish, at over 2 hours and 40 minutes. Even though I ran a half as recently as November and have been swimming 3 days a week, biking 1-2 and running 1-2, I cannot run that far. I can finish, but I can’t run the whole thing.
And I kind of knew that going in, but part of me was curious to see if I slowed it down to an 11:30 pace if I could manage a jog for the entire time. (Nope.)
Where does this leave me… well, with a renewed fervor to adequately train for Tri for a Cure in July. It is NOT fun to complete an event you haven’t trained for and are inadequately prepared to do. It just isn’t. It’s fine to be chill about time goals, it’s fine to have a walk/run strategy, but going in severely under-prepared to execute your plan isn’t a great idea for distance events.
I’m thrilled that I have another 13.1 mile lesson keeping me motivated to train for future events.
It hurt.
It does not feel good to be at mile 10 and realize you are going to be on the course for another 40 minutes and you can’t even manage a jog right now because you’re in pain.
If you don’t prepare, it hurts, and the pain doesn’t get you anything. That’s a beautiful lesson. That lesson got me to the pool this morning, and it’s going to get me to the pool again tomorrow morning and a spin class after that. That lesson reminded me that I should be running at least 10 miles a week, every week, no excuses, because I don’t want to finish that race in July walking.
I knew I couldn’t do well on Saturday, and I didn’t let that stop me from participating. But I’ll be honest. It didn’t feel good to finish; it didn’t feel like much of an accomplishment. It felt like failing an exam I didn’t prepare for and then wanting a sticker because I showed up to the test.
If it’s going to hurt that much, I want to feel satisfied afterwards, like I trained well, ran hard, and suffered because I wanted to get there faster… not because I didn’t train.
Lesson learned!
…again.